Dancing Queens (And Kings)
by poeticgrace
Summary: Relationships are complicated at the National Dance Academy. Who would have thought the dancing would be the easy part? Series of one-shots based on various friendship and romantic pairs, trios and groups.
1. Tara & Christian

_I'm in love for the first time. Don't you know it's gonna last? It's a love that lasts forever, it's a love that has no past.  
"Don't Let Me Down" - Phoebe Snow_

She always swears that this is time is different. It's like that every time she gets a crush, a flurry of little butterflies stirred up in her stomach. It's the only feeling that even starts to rival the rush she gets when she dances, and it amazes her. And it's always different, she swears, it's _always_ different.

Except that it isn't, not really. The feelings start out small and almost always all in her imagination. It begins because of a shared look that could be interpreted a million different ways or a slight brush of hand in passing that she thinks just _has _to mean something. She has their whole love story written in her head before he has ever spoken the first word to her, and it doesn't matter if it's the shop boy carrying out her mother's groceries or the kid who sits next to her in math class or the older dancer who rules her new dance academy with his perfect smile and the toss of his perfect hair.

The only time that she really gets it right, this whole being different thing, is with Christian. They start off particularly horribly when she accuses him of being twisted enough to pass rumors about her around the school and he blows her off because he really and genuinely doesn't care. And when they are partnered up for pas de deux, she tries to make the best of an awful situation and he goes through the movements as a means to an end. It's only after that stupid dog that she gives into what she has been ignoring for months and finally accepts that yeah, okay, this was going to change her entire life.

It works for awhile and then it doesn't. They break up and he starts sneaking around with Kat and she breaks her back. They don't talk for weeks while she is at the farm and she tries to ignore them both when she comes back to Sydney. She decides that she likes Ben (and pretends that it's different again) while he chooses to believe that thing with Kat are still working even though everyone can see plainly what is going on. They all go ice skating and Kat tells Tara later that they broke up. And then Sammy dies and Tara loses track of everything that she believes in.

She takes the summer, that long summer, to breathe on the farm. She spends warm afternoons with Kat in the sun, just having fun the way two girls their age should. They take the occasional class at her hometown studio and even take a weekend here and there to go visit Abigail. She speaks to Ollie, she speaks to Ethan, she speaks to Ben, but there is complete radio silence from Christian. No one has heard from since he took off with his father and she is the only one who is surprised.

He finally shows back up at school two days after Third Year starts, looking a little older and a little tanner than she remembers. Ms. Raine tells them that they can pick their own partners this year since it was time to specialize, and Tara is visibly disappointed when Christian goes back to Abigail. Her friend looks almost apologetic as she passes her by when Ms. Raine calls them to the front of the room, but after a year of partnering together, she knows there is a familiarity there. The two of them move perfectly together, and Tara is mortified when she walks into a private studio three weeks later to find them kissing.

She spends another month reliving the whole Kat/Christian debacle of Second Year, avoiding them at all costs despite their - and Kat's - constant pleading. It's only when Ben corners her in a room and locks the door firmly behind him that she is forced to listen to any of them. Tara reminds herself yet again why she's glad that she hadn't continued that thing with Ben after Third Year had started up. She crosses her arms over her chest as she stands in the corner, just on this side of sticking her fingers in her ears like a foolish little girl just to avoid hearing them talk.

"Alright, enough," Abigail snaps as she steps forward and right into Tara's face. "We have been apologizing and trying to be nice for five weeks now and I have had enough of it! We have said we're sorry, and if you would listen for three minutes, you would have figured out a long time ago that it meant absolutely nothing."

"But I saw you...!"

Christian held up his hand to stop her short. "Just listen, Training Bra," he demanded. "First of all, even if it did mean something, you have absolutely no right to be angry at Abigail or me. The two of us were very single at the time, and you and I hadn't been anything in six months. Neither of us betrayed you anymore than you betrayed me by hooking up with Ben last year. You and I were both free to do whatever we wanted."

Abigail looked at her and shook her head gently. "And the night that you walked in on Christian and me? We were both messed up, Tara," she added. "Sammy's dad had just called me to tell me that they were finally cleaning out his bedroom at home. There were some things he thought that Christian and I would want and a few things he wanted me to bring back here for you and Kat."

"We were both crying and I went to hug her because seeing Abigail cry is really quite scary," he grinned at his ex-girfriend and then over at his partner. "I mean, it's weird that she has actual, like, feelings. You and Sammy always swore it, but seeing it like that, I don't know. We were both lost and alone and scared and confused. It lasted all of fifteen seconds maybe, most of which you saw."

"And after you ran out, both of us admitted that it had been a fluke, a twisted mistake that we would never repeat," Abigail assured her. "Christian just understood something that no one else had been able to get and we got caught up in it. You of all people should know what that feels like."

"But Kat and I lost him too, we were his best friends," Tara argued. "We would have understood."

"You two had each other," Christian said, shaking his head. "In the days after and all summer long, it was just the two of you. There was no way that either of us could break into that."

"And you weren't his only best friends. Christian and I mattered to Sammy, and sometimes, I don't know, it was like you two acted like you had the market cornered on grieving him," Abigail explained. "We lost him, too, we all did. Christian knew how I felt about Sammy and how he felt about me. When I started thinking about moving on, I needed someone to tell me that it was okay."

"So you moved on with my...with Christian?"

Abigail brushed her hands over her face as she let out a muffled scream. "No, Tara, not with Christian," she muttered. "If you had spent any time paying attention to anyone but yourself, you would have realized that Ethan and I are together. I had - I have - feelings but it is definitely not for Christian. No offense."

"None taken," Christian shrugged with a grin. "You two are kind of cute together, and Tara, she's actually happy again."

"We all make mistakes, Tara, and I am probably guiltier than most," Abigail admitted. "But don't sit here and pretend to be perfect because you are far from it. You made one yourself once upon a time, and I seem to remember that it turned out pretty great. You don't have to forgive me, I don't really need it anymore. But Christian, well, I think he could use it. You know that he loves you, and you know that you love him. Just get over it - all the drama - and be together. Otherwise, you need to let go because it isn't fair to him. We might not be friends anymore, but my partner here has become my best friend. I won't let you ruin everything I've helped build."

"Oh, Abs," he teased with a mocking tone, his hand over his heart.

"Can it, Reed," she snapped back before bumping her fist to his. "I'm gonna go catch up with Ethan. I'll see you later in class."

The door slammed behind her as she left them alone in the studio. "You know she really cares about you," Tara said. "I've never seen her be that loyal to anyone except herself."

"And you and Kat," he countered. "When Kat and I started out last year, Abigail let me know exactly what would happen if I broke Kat's heart like I did yours. She's changed a lot, Tara, you should really think about opening up your eyes a little to see that."

"You're still defending her?"

Christian shrugged. "Yeah, of course, she's my best friend, Tara," he said, repeating Abigail's sentiment earlier. He wasn't sure when it happened but it didn't make it any less true. She was important to him. "I was also pointing out that she is right. I still love you."

"You still love me?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically. "You were my first love, Training Bra. That kind of thing could last forever if you let it. I don't really have any intention of stopping it. That call is all on you. Until then, I love you."

Tara had tried to move on from Christian. She had thrown herself into an innocent relationship with Ben that never really went anywhere. She had tried to focus on her dancing and rising to the top of Third Year. She had worked on being a better friend to Kat, a better daughter to her parents, a better student for her instructors. She had tried all those things and not a single one had worked. The only thing she had left was to accept that maybe she wasn't supposed to move on.

"I love you, too," she whispered as he closed the distance between them.

He framed her face in his hands and kissed her soundly. She felt him smile against her mouth as he pulled away. Maybe all those times before hadn't been quite as unique as she thought, but she had a feeling about this one. This time she was certain it would be different, and different, it was.


	2. Sammy & Abigail

_And I remember she used to look so good in that dress. Now she just screams how I promised her more than this. Take it easy, baby, it ain't over yet.  
"National Anthem" - Gaslight Anthem_

Sammy watches her dance alone in the studio, spinning from one end of the spacious room to the other without stopping or hesitating. He sees a confidence in her movements, a special kind of grace. He finds himself admiring it not for the first time, there was no denying that Abigail was a special kind of dancer. As she lifts her right leg up so that it's completely vertical to her body, he can't help but be in a little bit of awe. She's just so damn beautiful.

It's a lot like the night of the winter dance when she had walked down the stairs with Tara. He had thought that his life was going to change that night, and in a lot of ways, it actually had. However, it didn't take the path that they both thought because he had one of those whole life-altering realizations that if he didn't want to be intimate with her when she was looking like that then maybe something else deeper was going on with him. If he couldn't want her, he was never going to want another woman at all.

It had taken quite a long time before they could be friends again. He still missed dancing with her sometimes, especially when he saw how she had actually made Christian a better dancer and furthered the skill level even more between the brooding boy and the rest of the guys in Second Year. They made pretty perfect partners and he's a little bit jealous of all the time his friend gets to spend with her. He doesn't miss her, not like that at least. He just misses the way that she made him want to be better, the way they had actually become friends.

She finally yells at him, demanding to know why it happened. She doesn't understand why he broke up with her, and to be honest, there are times when he isn't sure either. He knows that she is still the most beautiful girl he's ever seen and that he had made a promise when he had become her boyfriend. For as strong as she was, Abigail was also all kinds of fragile and he had shattered her when he had broken her faith in him.

Fast forward to a year later and he's fresh off the breakup with Ollie. They become close again after she starts asking for his help with the aquarium date, and in return, she agrees to help him with his Prixe dance. When she tearfully applauds him from the darkened audience that night, he knows that he finally has it right. He reaches for her hand on the walk back to the dorms and stops to kiss her fully beneath that streetlight, feeling twice as nervous as she looks when she smiles up at him when they pull away.

He never knows the twist of fate that happens when he abandons his usual morning run to go see her before he heads over to get warmed up with the rest of the dancers. If only he'd made a different decision, the two of them would have faced a very different outcome. Instead, he knocks on her door nervously and kisses her calmly right in the doorway as Kat watches on without ever knowing what God had in store had he chosen a different path. Instead, they both got a fairly perfect moment that changed their relationship once again.

"Right, so there's that," he grins impishly while Kat giggles from behind the hand that is clamped loosely over her mouth and Abigail stares up at him with eyes that are clearly shocked. "You'll be there later, right? To watch Tara and me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," she manages before he leans forward to kiss her cheek impulsively again. When he is halfway down the hallway, he hears the shriek of Kat's laughter as Abigail gasps, "What the hell was that?!"


	3. Kat & Ben

_I saw a pretty little thing approaching me. She said I never seen a man who looks so all alone. Oh, could you use a little company?  
"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" - Cage the Elephant_

"You look like you could use a best friend."

Kat broke her gaze away from the sparkling water sloshing beneath her feet and looked upward to see who was ruining her very private self-pity party. "Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?"

"Dance practice," Ben said as he collapsed onto the sand next to her, smiling as she squinted to peer over at him in the bright sunlight. "You know how it goes, the female star of Third Year has to have private classes so she can be absolutely perfect for her legion of adoring fans."

"Hmm," Kat hummed in amusement. She wasn't the only one suffering from a case of loneliness and abandonment as the mid-year slump hit the Academy full in effect. "So Tara doesn't have time for you either?"

It was his turn to just shrug, a casual and half-hearted lift of his right shoulder. "I got wrapped up in my own stuff a few weeks ago, it's just a cycle. I understand what it's like for Tara," he said agreeably. Ben was always happy, always agreeable. He supported his girlfriend completely and was the most loyal boyfriend Kat had ever seen. She would have been jealous if she had even an inkling of interest in Ben. However, he was just a really nice guy and her friend deserved someone who was going to be really great to her after everything they'd been through these past two years. "Besides, I think we were talking about you."

"Were we?"

"Indeed," he confirmed. "And I don't think it's just Tara that you're missing, huh? Something tells me that it's another best friend that has your mind so far gone."

Kat smiled as she looked up at the sky and then out at the glittering water again. "It's just that Sammy was never too busy for me, you know? Christian is working doubly hard this year to make up for all the slacking he did these past two years, Tara is busy with all these extra classes and Abigail and Ethan have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth in their weird little lovers' haze. All this time alone has just given me time to think about him. I miss him a lot still, every single day."

"You're not the only one," he reminded her as he judged her with his shoulder. "Don't feel so sorry for yourself, Kat. It's the absolute last thing Sammy would want you to do. You are our own little ray of sunshine. We depend on you for optimism and fun. What are we going to do if you go get dark on us? We can't have that, and you absolutely know why."

She reached down and twisted the band of her hot pink watch. "So what do we do?" she asked almost rhetorically. "I mean, if I am happy all the time, you must be Christmas Eve, Easter morning and the Tooth Fairy all wrapped up in one! There is no one who is happier than you, you're the Benster."

"We have fun," he answered simply. "We'll put together a day of fun with our friends this Sunday, our one day of freedom."

Once he had retrieved a notepad from his backpack and she had found a pen buried in the bottom of her purse, they began to plan the perfect Sunday afternoon. There would be a picnic full of all the treats they weren't supposed to eat. There would be a movie in the park on a big inflatable screen that Ben was pretty sure he could borrow from the children's theater group he volunteered with. There would be frisbee and kickball, a few games from their childhood that would satisfy Abigail's inevitable pursuit of physical fitness. And there would be just a few hours where they weren't wrapped up in drama and dance.

"And I think that we need to invite Sammy," he decided.

"Invite Sammy?" Kat asked skeptically. "Like, you mean, have a séance?"

"No, like Sammy Sunday t-shirts," he laughed.

He helped her to her feet and in the direction opposite of the beach. They walked quickly toward a cute little row of shops not far from the Academy in relative silence. Kat grinned when they stopped in front of a store that sold custom-made shirts. Fifteen minutes later, the store owner had helped them come up with a prototype of a shirt with Sammy's photo printed across the back with the words "Super Sammy Sunday" in bold black letters on the front. The picture was one of her favorites, a silly snapshot from the night of the tattoo.

"He would absolutely love it," Kat declared as she stared at the computer screen. There was Sammy's happy smile looking back at her. It almost brought tears to her eyes until Ben wrapped his arm around her and hugged her tightly to his body. "He'd be mad for it really."

"Just like he was mad for his friends, especially his best friend and his honorary sister. It was you, Kat, that made him smile like that. I remember that you had just sent him a photo from your girls' night out," Ben reminded her. "And that's what I want you to remember every time you think about him. Remember that smile and how you put it on his face and how you're still putting it on our faces every day."

"You're a special person, Benjamin Tickle."

"It's all in the charm, Kat," he grinned. "It's all in the charm."


	4. Sammy & Christian

_We both know I cannot come home, the water rose faster than I could run. All my love has bruised my grieving bones. Forgive my sins for I haven't found God, and I don't know when I can trust my heart. But you were my rock, never my stepping stone.  
"Harbour Lights" - A Silent Film_

"I think I might have feelings for Abigail again," Sammy told Christian one night after curfew, just after they had turned off the lights. The stress of the Prixe had the whole Academy off kilter, and peace only seems to come in the moments of darkness before sleep these days. "Like it was last year, you know, except maybe a little more real."

Christian turned over on his side to face his friend in the dark. Somewhere along the way, the two of them had stopped being just classmates and roommates. They were even more than friends. Sammy was the best person that Christian had ever known, probably the truest mate he could ever hoped to make. It didn't matter that he'd had close guy friends before or that biology had given him one - Sammy was the closest thing to a brother he would ever have. He might not always understand the emotionally open Jewish kid from the wealthy family, but Christian was truly proud to call him his best friend.

"Real, huh? That's when it gets scary, mate," Christian replied finally. "I've been thinking a lot about Tara, too. She's pretty amazing. I keep thinking how we would still be together if I hadn't messed up earlier this year. Sometimes I wonder if she could forgive me and we could start over again."

Sammy frowned in the dark. Tara was finally in a good place again, dancing well and seemingly pretty happy with Ben. However, he couldn't deny that his friends shared a special connection, and after everything with Abigail, who was he to judge? Who was he to stand in the way of true love?

"If Abby can forgive me, then anything is possible," Sammy assured him. "After what I did to her, breaking up with her without any explanation and then jumping into that thing with Ollie, I would have deserved it if she never talked to me again. She's actually been pretty amazing once she settled into everything, and I think we ended up being pretty great friends afterward."

"Friends are great, man, but that doesn't mean that you need to go and fall for her again," Christian retorted. He thinks just for a moment about the weirdness that had transpired at the end of First Year before moving on. "Besides, you had a boyfriend up until a few days ago. You like guys, right? I'm not sure that jumping into something with a girl will clear up any confusion you've had this year."

Christian can hear Sammy turn over on his back and let out a harsh exhale of frustration. "I'm thinking that maybe this means I like both," he thought aloud. "Or maybe it just means that I like Abigail. Maybe it's a person-specific attraction, I don't know. I just know that spending time with her makes me happy. I feel like myself with her. I don't have to pretend. She sees the flaws and she lets me know that she sees them. And even after all that, she still accepts me in her weird way."

"I know how appealing that can be," Christian admitted. "Tara knows all about my past. She has seen me do some pretty terrible things, even lived through a couple of them herself. She knows that I can be selfish probably better than anyone. Even after all that, she's been my friend. Even more than that, she has accepted and loved me. Girls like that don't come along everyday."

"I kissed her."

"Who? Tara?"

"No," Sammy laughed, "Abigail, tonight, after we left the theater. We were talking and she looked so beautiful and it just felt right. She gave up a date earlier, saying that she wanted to date herself, but I just have this feeling it has to do with this moment we shared at the aquarium. So I was thinking about that and looking at her, man, I just had to kiss her."

Christian thinks about his own impulsiveness and how it had gotten his heart into trouble in the past. It's how he ended up kissing Tara on a beach when she was dating someone else. It's how he ended up kissing Kat on the pier when he knew that he still had feelings for Tara. He almost warned Sammy about the effects of such living but decided against it. Sammy wasn't Christian, and besides, he didn't really regret making either of those decisions.

Just as he is about to say something in return, he hears Sammy adjusting the blankets and pull them over his head. "Well, thanks for listening to me. I think I am going to get some sleep. Tomorrow is the big day," Sammy said, and Christian could hear the grin in his voice. "You'll be at the theater to watch us tomorrow, yeah? I think both Tara and I could use your support."

"I'll be there," he promised. "Night, Sammy."

"Good night, Christian," his friend replied with a deep yawn.

They barely spoke the next morning when Sammy was getting ready to go for his run. Christian usually went with him, but their talk the night before had him thinking about Tara. Sammy fired off a warning to Christian against it, not wanting Tara to be distracted at this critical time, but Christian wasn't hearing anything of it. Sammy had left the dorm after Christian, and neither of them had any way of knowing it would be the last time they'd ever speak again.

Two short hours later, Christian delivered the bad news to Tara on the side of the stage and it's not even three before they stand together in the lounge and start to fall apart. Christian doesn't know how to deal with it and knows that he is already pulling back before it even starts to happen. The whole group ends up in his room that night, Abigail at his side with the others littered around the room. His fingers find Abby's in the night and he can hear Tara tossing and turning on the floor below.

He goes for a long walk after the funeral, after they danced in solidarity in the studio still dressed in their finest blacks. He has his little fight with Ollie and they all figure out a way to honor Sammy with that memorial on the beach. He shares a moment with Tara the next morning and briefly wonders what his next step with her should be. Instead, he knows that he needs to focus on what comes next for him and what he still needed to do for Sammy.

Christian starts by visiting his family. He doesn't tell anyone when he disappears for the suburbs one afternoon carrying a bunch of yellow roses and a few new comic books. He lets Sammy's mom fuss after him a little bit and laughs when his little brother curls up to read the books. Christian even visits with his father some, although he knows the doctor really never cared much for him. They seem to be doing okay, relying on each other get through. Christian is glad to know this and is confident Sammy would be too. They're not great yet, but they were at least on their way to be good enough for now.

The next step is to make sure that all amends are made with Kat. He knew that they were okay when she had helped put together the thing for his birthday and having Ethan around seems to help her. She has the only constant she has ever known with her brother, and he's happy to see that their breakup and his feelings for Tara hasn't messed up the friendship between the two girls. They get coffee the day after his birthday and he finally apologizes like he should have. She forgives him because she figures that it's easier than hanging onto the anger.

His last visit before he gets ready to leave is to see Abigail. He finds her sitting at the outdoor gazebo, staring out the water as if she was lost in her thoughts. Christian had heard about the small breakdown she'd had at the audition but knew better than to comment. Instead, he brought her a small leather notebook that had a dried flower pressed between the pages as a bookmark.

"It was Sammy's. It's one of the only thing that I held onto after I sent everything to his parents," he told her as he handed it over. "I figured that there were some things in there he wouldn't want them to know. I also figured that there were some things in there that he _would_ want you to know."

"Thank you, Christian," she said as she opened it to a random page. He watched her thoughtfully trace her fingertip over his mess of a scrawl. "I appreciate it."

"He really cared about you, you know? Not just before but still. I know that some thing happened, and I just wanted you to know that he cared," Christian told her nervously. He wasn't sure how to explain it, but Abigail seemed to understand him.

It's nearly the last real conversation of meaning he has before he leaves Sydney. He comes to the stage to dance with the rest of them during Ben's Prixe performances and makes a solemn promise to himself before he leaves the Opera House. He never has the conversation that he wants to have most, the one with Tara, because he can somehow feel that it wasn't what Sammy would want. She was happy and he was leaving. She deserved a perfect summer with her family and her friends where she wouldn't have to worry about him. Next year would be an entirely different situation and he would surely finally tell her how he felt.

Just on his way out of town, though, he tells his dad he has one last stop. He waits for Christian outside the gate of the cemetery, his back against a brick wall and his helmet in his hand. Christian bends down next to the still-fresh gravesite and pats the upturned earth below.

"I'm leaving for awhile, mate, just didn't want you to think I am abandoning you," Christian told him. "I made peace with Kat and checked in on Abby. Your girls are going to be just fine, all three of them, I promise. They are finally in a place where they have each other. Kat's going to the farm with Tara and Abigail's going to Barcelona with Ethan. They will take care of each other. We're all going to be okay, man."

Christian reached into his back pocket and looked down at a photograph they'd had taken the morning after the memorial, a random snapshot taken by a tourist who'd happened by in the early hours of the day. "We're all going to be okay, Sammy. You were the one that held us together, you know that," Christian said softly. "You held _me_ together. You were my best friend. Something tells me Tara will be the glue now, but I promise that I will help her and do my part. You deserve that, mate. We all do." He placed the photo on the grave and smiled bravely through his tears. "Take care, Lieberman. I promise I'll be back. I promise you will see me next year."


	5. Tara & Ethan

_Practice isn't perfect, but the markets cut a loss. I remind myself that times could be much worse.  
"Take a Walk" - Passion Pit_

Ethan Karamakov kind of hates Tara Webster. He wasn't the one who had pursued her in the first place. In fact, he had done everything he could to avoid the innocent First Year student because she was just so young and inexperienced and Kat's friend and that pretty much added up to disaster. And then he had to go and be so damn inspired by her ribbon dance on the pier and ask her to take part in his choreography routine, and it's then that he got to see what a special dancer she really was. When he finally decided that he liked her enough to do something about it, she pulls away. He's further confused when she kisses him right before exams and they somehow end up spending break in a long-distance relationship.

It actually goes okay for awhile, and he likes how she has become his muse. It's easy to imagine dances when it's her body that brings them to life. There is a natural talent there that the Academy hasn't seen for years, and even if it's not quite polished yet, he knows that she has a future as a principal ahead of her. He just hopes that he's around long enough to choreograph her grand coming-out party and finally see both of their dreams come true.

Ethan gets so wrapped up in creating that perfect dance moment that he kind of quits paying attention. He doesn't see her starting to drift away from him and toward Christian. He doesn't see all the sure-tell signs, ones that he himself had perfected over the years. He realizes later he shouldn't be surprised when they finally do break up. It was the whole reason he didn't want to start any of this in the first place.

He is lost after that, and that's when he starts to really hate her. She didn't just break his heart, she broke his concentration. He can't find the focus to put together movements anymore, and all of his progress these past few months is completely gone. He decides then that he'll throw all of his attention on trying to make the Company, but even that feels empty when he finally gets it. They finally talk a little after that and maybe start to kind of become friends again. He offers a place with them that summer so they can work together, but she heads back to the farm with Christian. They both know that it will take him longer to forgive her this time.

In fact, Ethan cannot fully forgive her until he has found a new muse, one that he is confident will stick around this time. Abigail makes him want to be better in a way that Tara could never manage. They are entirely different dancers, completely opposite kinds of girls. While Tara would have implored him to stay with her in Sydney, Abigail puts her own feelings aside and pushes him to go to Barcelona. And at the end of the year, when asks her to go with him, she grabs an English-Spanish dictionary and drives him crazy for the next two days as she practices her really terrible accent.

When they come back to Australia just in time for Abigail to start Third Year, the whole lot of them spend some time together and enjoy those last few days of summer. Kat and Tara share tales from the farm, while Christian tells stories from the road. Abigail and Ethan share a secret smile when they talk about how amazing Barcelona was. His sister nudges him not-so-subtly and tells him that he'll have to fill in the blanks later.

Third Year starts back up, and Abigail is just as focused as ever. Something about losing Sammy made her want to be a better dancer again, the kind that would go onto leading roles and international notoriety despite natural limitations that would have held a lesser girl back. She rises to the top of the class again, leaving a floundering Tara behind her. Abigail occasionally takes pity on the country girl and tries to help since they are actually friends now, but she has a responsibility to herself to never let that come at the detriment of her own dancing.

So when Tara comes to Ethan to help her put together a piece for the mid-year showcase, Abigail happily gives her blessing because she already has a beautiful routine that he choreographed for her over the summer. He spends hours in the studio with his ex-girlfriend, patiently adjusting her body this way and showing her how to move that way, until she finally gets everything right just in time for the big performance. And he knows that he shouldn't be surprised when she kisses him at two in the morning in the studio but he still is. Tara is always confused, and she's always dragging her friends in to her mess.

He tells Abigail first thing the next morning, with tears rolling down his perfectly tanned cheeks and he tries not to choke on the sobs as he says those dreadful words. She is eerily quiet as she draws her knees up to her chin. "Did you kiss her back?" is the only question she thinks to ask and he promises over and over again that he didn't want it, that it meant absolutely nothing to him. When Abigail finally starts to cry, that's when he pretty much decides that he kind of hates Tara Webster again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," tells him as soon as she shows up backstage. He's waiting with his arms crossed just outside the girls' dressing rooms, holding Abigail's pink dance bag while he waits for her to change. "I just got caught up in everything. I know it was a mistake."

"You're always just getting caught up in something, Tara, aren't you?" he sneers coldly. He knows that it's a little mean and she probably really didn't mean for it to happen. The only problem is that they've been here twice before, and last time, he came out on the losing end. "Just when someone is finally happy, you have to come along and find a way to mess it up. Look, it's fine if you want to ruin your life, but we've all had just about enough of it. Stay away from me and stay away from Abigail. My relationship karma might dictate that I deserve a little of this, but she doesn't deserve even the tiniest piece of it."

They go on not talking for a month before Abigail finally convinces him that it's time to forgive her. "If I can get past it then you should be able to let it go," she tells him late one night when they're sitting in the dark in the lounge, his arms wrapped around her middle and her head against his chest. "Holding onto it only gives the moment more power than it deserves, and I don't want any of this between us anymore. You make me really happy, Ethan. I'm asking you to please just let it go."

So for her, for Abigail, he seeks Tara out the next day. They grab coffees from the outdoor cafe and head for that place in the park where he found her searching for four-leaf clovers all those months ago. She sits in the middle of the green grass and fidgets with her little red stirring straw nervously while he only leans back on his hands and stares up at the puffy white clouds above.

"I forgive you, Tara, " he finally says, not bothering to drop his gaze from the sky. "For kissing Christian, for choosing him, for what happened last month - for all of it, I forgive you. We were friends once and then we weren't and then we were again. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I know that I can't go through life holding onto being angry at you."

She folds her hands neatly in her lap before looking over at him sideways. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry. I never meant to hurt Abigail or you."

He nods thoughtfully before finally meeting her eyes. "That's the thing, Tara, you never do. I'm not really sure what your intentions are, but we know that you're nothing close to evil. That's why we forgive you, but you can only be innocent for so long."

"I know," she replies and something breaks loose in his chest. He doesn't hate her anymore. He only feels sorry for her. She's just a lost little girl, looking for her place in the world and someone to love her. He reaches over and pats her shoulder awkwardly before climbing to his feet. "So I'll see you around?"

"I'm sure you'll see us somewhere, Webster," he smiles kindly. The dance world is small, and the Academy is even smaller. "Take care of yourself, yeah?"

With a polite wave and a slight nod, he walks away and leaves that part of his life behind him for good. They will never be friends again, not like they were. Abigail will always remember how her friend betrayed her, and he will always remember that he was never her first choice. Both of them are surprisingly okay with this and find a way to move on without ever looking back over their shoulder for her.

When Tara opens as Clarice in New York five years later, they send a generous bouquet of roses from the Kirov in St. Petersburg. She might be a principal now, but Abigail has been one for two years and is already being called a prima ballerina by her contemporaries and the critics alike. Ethan is one of the most sought-after choreographers in the world but has taken up residency at the Kirov to create beautiful dances for the only dancer that has ever truly been his muse.


	6. Grace

_Say a prayer but let the good times roll in case God doesn't show. And I want these words to make things right but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life...One night and one more night, thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great.  
"Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" - Fall Out Boy_

Grace doesn't mean to be a bad person, she really doesn't. However, her past has dictated a need for self-preservation, which means she is always one step ahead of hurting someone before they can hurt her. It's a destructive path to take, but it's one that has served her well. She is officially the best student dancer in the world, and the only drawback is there isn't anyone there to share it with her.

She can carefully and thoroughly trace how she'd gotten here this year. Her nasty attitude had gotten her shipped out of the UK and straight to Australia by her father, leaving her with the only other person living on the planet who still cared about her. She had then capitalized on insecurities and circumstances to ruin relationships one by one. By the time she was kicked out of the Academy, she didn't have anyone left on her side. No one could hurt her now, she wouldn't let them.

It all started with Kat. Grace hated the other blonde from the first moment she met her. She had a spunky, fun attitude that made her popular, and Grace knew immediately that a girl like Kat would see right through her. She was too savvy, too aware of how the world worked, not to see the games Grace was up to. That's why she started up with the backhanded compliments immediately and didn't ease up until she had successfully helped to dismantle her friendship with Tara after the whole kiss indiscretion halfway through the year.

Without having to worry too much about the girl too free-spirited to make it into Second Year, Grace set her sights on the top two dancers in her class. She saw Abigail's weaknesses right away. Though she was focused, the petite brunette was also undeniably lonely. Grace angled herself as Abigail's new best friend, pretending to be into the things that she was and occasionally convincing her to have a little fun. Grace is able to play her like a fiddle for a few months until she gets bored with the whole thing. One kiss with Ethan pretty much puts an end to that friendship, and Grace quickly moves on.

Tara is a little harder to break. She is just so damn innocent that Grace almost feels bad about what she's going to do to her. She even actually almost likes her a little and nearly isolates her to the point where she is her only girl friend. They become roommates and share everything after Kat starts spending all her time with Christian. It's only after Tara decides that she wants to try to forgive Kat that Grace starts to feel threatened.

She unleashes her wrath in a slow and methodic way built on guilt, lies and self-destruction. Like any girl with true daddy issues, she seeks the approval of an older male in her life. Zach is kind to her and sees her greater value. It causes Grace to feel things she doesn't like and start to construct this convoluted version of love for him. After one stupid misstep at a late-night rehearsal, Grace knows that it's time to do damage control. Figuring she could count on innocent Tara to actually have her back, she tearfully (and falsely) confides in her supposed friend about the kiss. Tara seems to believe her pretty easily and buys into the whole story, leaving Grace feeling like she has the upperhand again.

What she doesn't count on is Tara seeing through her lies when she decides that she still wants to audition. Grace tosses off some easy line about not wanting to let Zach take away her dancing, but that doesn't stop the country bumpkin from going straight to Lucy and telling her everything. All three of them pretend to care about her when they corner her in Lucy's office, but Grace isn't having any of it. Two days later she touches back down in London but only after telling Tara that she let her win.

She makes it her only goal to get back into the Prixe. Thankfully, she doesn't have to rely on her old tactics to kick out one of the British dancers to secure her spot. The girl has a true accident and Grace is selected to fill the spot. She starts working on The Red Shoes right away, getting it down until it's perfect. By the time she gets back to Sydney, first place is as good as hers.

Everything is delayed a little after Sammy dies, and Grace actually grieves at his funeral. She comes across them at the beach later and knows that she doesn't belong. This only furthers her drive to be the best, to beat Tara and take what is rightfully hers. She plays her little mind games like she always does, and no matter what the others snidely say from the stage wings, she dances The Red Shoes as perfectly as it's ever been done.

Sure, she doesn't have the soulful innocence and endearing heartbreak that Tara does, but she is complex and broken in an entirely different way of her own. She uses that to guide the strength in her jumps, the precision in her turns. Tara might bring tears to Grace's eyes when she collapses at the end of her dance, but it's Grace who still comes out on top. She drinks in the applause at center stage and accepts the win without apology. Grace has fought long and hard for this. She deserves it.

Still, after watching the people she once thought might be her friends take the stage and honor Sammy, she suddenly decides that it's time to stop playing games. She might have won this stupid competition, but it's a hollow victory. They don't have the medal, the flowers or the accolades, but they have each other. Grace has nothing except an open invitation to any dance academy in the world.

And so, like she did all those months ago, she makes a choice to tackle these relationships one by one. Rather than ruining them, she will try her hardest to build them and preserve them and cherish them all. She will come clean about her transgressions and apologize for her sins and try to be the good person her mother envisioned she would become. Grace swallows her pride and returns to the scene of her exile, with tears in her eyes and her heart in her hand.

"The committee said I could choose any school in the world," Grace told Lucy as she handed over the folded piece of paper with her acceptance written on it. "I choose the Academy."


	7. Ben & Christian & Sammy

_But if you left it up to me, every day would be a holiday from real. We'd waste our weeks beneath the sun.  
We'd fry our brains and write it's so much fun out here.  
"Holiday From Real" - Jack's Mannequin_

"Let's just have one day where we're not dancers."

Sammy dropped his pencil and looked up at Christian. "But we are."

"Well, let's pretend that we're not and actually have fun like the teenagers we supposedly are," Christian proposed. "There is this killer bonfire going on down at the beach, and I heard that there are supposed to be some Swedish tourists there that are quite fit. Guys and girls, you take your pick."

"Swedish, eh?" Ben grinned, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. "I could go for some of that kind of fun."

"It'll be a holiday from real," Christian told Sammy. "We'll enjoy the surf and the water until the sun goes down. Ben can use his fake to score us some beers from the corner and we can just enjoy being young for one night. We don't tell the girls. They won't even know we're dancers there."

"And what will we be when they ask?"

"We'll be students like they are," Ben answered. "You can say you're a medical student, girls always dig that. I'll be teacher, maybe a sports trainer or something. Reed can be an actor. He's got the drama and the brooding down perfectly."

So they pack their kits full of snacks and Christian grabs his surfboard and Ben manages to find his fake ID in the mess of papers that have taken up permanent residence in his desk drawers. Sammy pulls out his most fashionable pair of turquoise sunglasses and Ben grabs an extra bottle of sunblock and Christian tosses a football in his bag at the last minute just in case. There are already two dozen kids milling around by the time Christian leads them down to the spot he'd heard about. Ben heads off toward the store with a pair of blondes on his arm while Sammy starts talking to the guy who had become the self-appointed captain of the beach volleyball team.

They spend six hours out in the sun before it finally sets below the horizon. They share beers, some stale from having been open for so long between turns surfing and all of them hot from having been out of an actual cooler for most of the day. Someone eventually sparks up the fire and a guy pulls a guitar out of nowhere. The group takes up drinking old pop songs in various drunken languages, no one louder than Benjamin Tickle. Sammy starts dancing rather badly with a pretty little Italian girl while Christian becomes quite acquainted with the lips of a tall French exchange student. Eventually the beach patrol comes along and reminds them that it's past curfew. Everyone starts to disband, calling well wishes into the dark night.

They stumble back toward the dorm slowly until Sammy decides that he's too tired to make it rest of the way back. He leans against the wall of the bus stop, using his towel as a blanket and the hard wooden bench as his bed. Ben and Christian laugh at how quickly he passes out and try to figure out if they have enough money between the two of them to get a cab. They call one when they find a twenty in the bottom of their friend's bag and shove him into the backseat when it pulls up to the curb within fifteen minutes.

The girls are waiting in the lounge when they come barreling in, Sammy somehow finding his second wind as soon as he steps foot on Academy property. They're watching some stupid chick flick, one that sets unrealistic expectations for an entire generation of women that will be inevitably disappointed by the simple, messy, unromantic men in their lives. Tara tries to ask where they were but none of them offer up any real answer. Christian just waves his hand dismissively, Sammy can't stop laughing and Ben is still a little toasted from the quick drag he'd taken off the blunt the guitar player had offered up near the end.

"We're not dancers!" Sammy said suddenly out of nowhere, causing both him and Ben to start laughing again. He turns to Abigail and leans forward so that he's right in her face. "Did you hear me? We're not dancers!"

"This is absurd," she retorted as she rolled her eyes. She tossed the remote down on the sofa and glanced over at the girls. "I'm going to bed. You deal with them."

"No, don't leave, Abigail!" Christian called out. "Stay, we're on holiday." Abigail looks at him with sharp eyes and just shrugs before padding up the stairs. When he hears the door click shut over his head, he looks over at the guys. "Damn, she left."

"I wonder why," Tara said sarcastically. "Exactly how much did you guys drink?"

"One, two, three, nine," Ben guessed. Sammy and Christian snickered. "A lot, I think."

"Yeah, definitely a lot," Sammy agreed. "Tara Webster, Tara, T..."

She smiled in brief amusement at her friend. "Yes?"

"You love Christian and Ben loves you and you love Ben and Christian loves you," he replied drunkenly. "It's all very confusing! You should have a threesome! I think it'd work really good. I like boys too, you know. You three would be great."

"And with that," Tara stood up. "You're an ugly drunk, Lieberman."

Kat is the only one left sitting on the couch when Tara slams her bedroom door shut.

"What'd I do wrong?" Sammy muttered. "Where'd Tara go, Kat? I miss her. Let's go find her, Kitty Kat! MEOW!"

Kat pinched the the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Leave T alone, Sammy."

"Tara left?" Ben asked as he looked up from where he was twisting the edges of his frayed towel together. It had required his total concentration and he had missed everything that just happened. "I miss Tara. Let's go get her!"

"No, we're leaving Tara alone," Kat told him.

"Why are we leaving Tara alone?" Christian questioned. "She should be here with us. She belongs with all of us, she's our glue! We need her, Kat! I miss her. Let's get her now before we fall apart."

"That's it," Kat retorted as she threw her hands up in the air. "I'm done with the lot of you."

"Woohoo! Holiday!" Sammy cheered out of nowhere, causing the other two to clap along with him. "Hey, Kat, did you know we're not dancers?!" A minute later, a final slam echoed throughout the dormitory.


	8. Kat & Tara

_I could be you, you could be me. I would walk a million miles in your shoes, and you could walk a million miles in my bare feet.  
"What I Be" - Michael Franti & Spearhead_

There is a moment where she is sure she will never dance again, and she knows that only she will understand.

It is a feeling, a rare sentiment, shared by two best friends during two different moments within the span of the same year. Kat has it on a strangely romantic night when Myles shows up for her and she gets the results from her exams. She finds out that she has basically been kicked out of the Academy and resolves then and there that her dance career is over. Even after she watches Tara make a theater fall in love with her, Kat makes herself believe that she won't miss it. It's just something that she used to do, it doesn't define her - it doesn't make her who she is.

She pretends all summer long until she shows back up in Sydney after a nasty breakup with Myles. As soon as she slams the door on the van, all the old emotions and memories come rushing back to her. She knows that there is no avoiding her dance past once she gets back to the city. She misses it terribly and does everything to pretend that it doesn't matter to her one bit.

It's only when the others are back into the swing of Second Year that Kat finally has her realization. She is listening to Sammy and Tara rattle on and on about this new girl in their classes who they swear is amazing, even better than Abigail. And then Tara is on her feet, dancing some skillful combination with Sammy, and she doesn't miss the natural way her body reacts to watching them move. It's innate, as engrained into her as her trendy fashion sense and sarcastic wit.

"I miss it," she tells Tara later after Sammy is gone. "I miss dancing. I never thought I would but I do. I miss the tutus and the classes and the stuffy classical music and all the competition. I don't want to miss it, Tara, it almost ruined me! This is so stupid, I gave all of that up when it quit on me. Why am I even thinking about putting myself through it again?"

Tara looked up at her with those innocent eyes and Kat knows what she is going to say before she even says it. "Because it's everything we've ever wanted, even when we didn't want to want it," she breathed. Ballet was Tara's whole life, and Kat had always hated the way that dance seemed to take up all that space. "You tried to run away from it, Kat, but you can't change who you are. You are a dancer, it's what you're meant to be. Pushing it away only delays the inevitable. You were born to do ballet."

A few short months later, their friendship is not in nearly as great of a place. Kat has betrayed Tara with the deadliest of friendship sins. She kissed the boy that Tara loved, and both of them know there is no way of coming back from it. And then Tara is injured and gets kicked out of the Academy. Kat tries to call and apologizes over and over again to her voicemail. When every call goes unanswered and unreturned, she nearly gives up.

And then Ben comes back from a visit to the hospital with the news that he saw Tara. He doesn't give a lot of details about how she is doing emotionally other than the only people she asked after were Sammy and Isabelle. He tells Kat that she is helping with a little production he is putting on with some of the patients and that Tara has a slew of appointments at the hospital that will keep her around. She thinks about surprising her friend with an impromptu visit but as if to read her mind, Sammy ends up telling her to leave well enough alone.

It's only after Ben finally adds that Tara is thinking about never dancing again that Kat decides that she still has to do something and that now is the time to act. She doesn't tell anyone where she is going when she takes a cab to the hospital. Kat doesn't feel like she has the right to step foot in the place so she waits out front until she sees the familiar yellow of Mr. Webster's car. Tara is furious when she sees her sitting there on the bench but slows down her gait nonetheless.

"What are you doing here?" Tara demanded as she stopped short of Kat, crossing her arms over her chest protectively and tapped her foot. "I'm not answering the phone for a reason. I thought you understood that after the little conversation we had."

"I did, perfectly clearly actually," Kat replied cautiously. "And after I say this, I won't bother you again, but I have to have my conscience clear of at least this one thing. You saved me from never dancing once upon a time and it's time for me to return the favor. Look, you can give Ben the credit or whatever but just listen to what I have to say. You don't owe me anything, but I'd really appreciate it if you would hear me out."

"You have two minutes," Tara retorted before sitting down on the opposite end of the bench.

"I have never met anyone who was more in love with ballet than you," Kat told her. "I used to be really jealous of it actually. I thought if I could care even half as much about dancing as you did then maybe I'd be happier doing it. I saw the way my mom responded to your enthusiasm and part of me always hoped that some of it would rub off."

"After I got kicked out of the Academy, I decided that was it. I looked it as if ballet and I had quit on each other, and I lied my way into believing that it didn't matter at all," she continued. "And then I saw you dancing and I knew that I missed it. I wanted it back, and I got it back because of you."

Tara smiled for the briefest of seconds before biting down on her bottom lip. "Well, you're welcome," she said blankly. "Are you done?"

"I get that you are scared, Tara. You have every reason to be. You've battled back from your knee last year and now your back. You have no way of knowing if you will be the same dancer as you were before," she said. "But I have to believe that what makes us the dancers we are has nothing to do with genetics or natural talent. It has to do with heart, and trust me, no one has a bigger one than you do."

Tara looks at her for a moment before getting up and walking silently into the hospital. Kat stares after her retreating back for a moment before shaking her head. They might not ever be friends again, but she has said everything that she has come to say to her. Kat can't make Tara dance again if she doesn't want to anymore than Tara could have made Kat do it at the beginning of the year. She just hoped what she said had somehow sunk in and that Second Year would get its heart and soul back again soon.

Ben tells them all a few days later that Tara would be coming back within the next week. He looks so proud as they all congratulate him. Kat lets him take all the credit just like she told Tara she would. She doesn't need the applause for being a decent human being. Having Tara back at the Academy would be reward enough for her.


	9. Abigail & Ethan

_Tongues are violent, personal and focused, hard to beat with your steady mind. But hearts are stronger after broken, so wake on up from your slumber and open up your eyes.  
"Slumber" - Needtobreathe_

There were a million little things that made Ethan love Abigail. She was the most determined person he had ever met, more dedicated to her craft than anyone and equally as dedicated to him. When she smiled, she did it with her entire body, even her knees, which was really hard to explain to anyone else who hadn't seen her cute little knees when she was really excited about something. She had a really amazing indie record collection, something she rarely let show because she considered it frivolous unless it was one of those really dark days where she'd end up singing in an empty bathtub in their apartment just to hear her voice echo with the intimate acoustics of the small space. She also made the best pasta primavera, always remembered to send him a postcard when she was on the road and tucked her feet under his legs whenever it was cold.

However, those things hadn't exactly been easy to discover. It had taken them a long time to get where they were. After Sammy had died, she had almost lost her ability to trust anyone again. Even though she had initially been excited about spending the summer in Barcelona with him, she had eventually went inside herself as those long weeks had worn on. He didn't notice when she stopped eating again, but after a fainting spell four weeks before they were to return to Sydney, he finally saw what she really hadn't been hiding all that well right in front of his face. She hadn't even fought a little when he bought their return tickets to Australia two days later. It was like she had given up.

Ethan had visited her every day in rehab, bringing her flowers and magazines and little presents like a stuffed platypus and a really pretty silk scarf. Her doctors didn't keep her away from dance this time because they had learned that one did not necessarily feed the other. She started Third Year with the rest of her classmates and threw herself back into dancing. Ms. Raine kept a careful eye on her to make sure that dancing didn't become her latest addiction, while Ethan spent countless hours in the studio watching her just because he could. Things went pretty well for awhile, until one day when they weren't.

"Ab, you have to get up, babes," he said softly as he knelt next to her bedside. Kat had called him in a tizzy that morning, almost sobbing that she couldn't get his girlfriend out of bed. All the lights were off in the room and the curtains were drawn. It was the only way she had agreed to let him stay. "Come on, you don't have to go to class. We'll go for a walk and go feed the ducks."

"You don't even know what today is, do you?" she replied accusingly, looking from Ethan to Kat. "How easily you forget, huh, Kat? It hasn't even been that long."

Something dawns on Kat suddenly and she covers her mouth as she sinks to the floor. "Sammy's birthday," she exhales in realization, her eyes instantly darting to the group shot of them that hangs on the wall permanently next to her bed. "Abigail, I'm sorry. I thought about it last week, really I did. It's just with exams and doing _Peter Pan_ again, I've been busy. We all are. He'd understand..."

"Well, I don't understand," Abigail said hotly. "Apparently neither of you understand, so you can both just go. Leave me alone!"

"I understand," a voice announced from the door. Ethan turned, expecting Tara, but instead, he found Christian. "I get it, Abby. I miss him too, so much, every single day. We all do, but it's different for us, isn't it? He was my best friend - more of a brother to me than my own brother. And he loved you so much, even if you weren't together."

Christian came further into the room and sat on the edge of her bed. He reached down for her hand and held it cautiously in his lap. "Sammy worried about you so much First Year when you got sick. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and he'd just be pacing the floor. He nearly climbed the walls when your mother wouldn't let him talk to you. It was only after he showed up at your house that he managed to be calm. He needed to know that you were okay, to see it for himself. Once he knew that you were strong enough to make it, well, I never saw him more relieved than that."

"He threw rocks at my window," she remembered. "We just sat in my bed all night watching old movies. He held my hand and let me just sit there without having to talk about every little thing. We were so messed up, but he was really good at just letting me be. I really, really miss that."

"We're not easy people to love, are we, Armstrong?" Christian asked rhetorically. "We gave him every reason not to, put up one hell of a challenge. But Sammy didn't care about any of that. He fought for us because he saw something worth loving underneath all the mess. He wouldn't want you to give up now either. He'd want you to live your life. He'd want you to be happy with Ethan."

"Abs, please listen to Christian," Ethan pleaded. "I know this isn't easy, but I am going to be here for you."

"Sammy said that and then he left."

"Oh, babes," he said softly, crawling up onto the bed so that he could hold her. Christian slowly moved away, dropping her hand and carefully nudging Kat toward the door to give them some much-needed privacy. "I know it feels like that, but you know that Sammy didn't leave you. He loved you. Sometimes I'm a little jealous that he cared about you that much because I know what he means to you. And then I realize how messed up that is because I can't fight someone who isn't here. I'm okay with you holding onto those memories, Ab, but I won't let them pull you under."

"I don't want to be sick anymore," she sobbed, turning in his arms to bury her face in his chest. "I just want to be healthy and be good again because you deserve that. You're so amazing and patient and kind to me. I'm just a mess."

"Maybe but you're my mess," he whispered before pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. "None of us are perfect, you know that I have my issues. I just know that I would rather work through them with than hide from them without you You're not just the girl I love, you're also my best friend."

"You love me?"

He smiled affectionately and nodded. "But you already knew that."

And here they are now, two years later, living the life of a royal ballet couple in Paris. Okay, so she is just an understudy for a principal and spends most of her time in the chorus. He's really just an assistant choreographer that occasionally gets to add a combination here and there to a piece when the moment calls for something extraordinarily mundane and boring. But they are both living their dance dreams and doing it together in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in the most romantic city in the world. Every year on Sammy's birthday, Ethan bakes her a cake and has one of those trees planted in Jerusalem in his honor. And at the end of the night, when she tucks her tiny little feet beneath his legs, he thinks of one more thing that happened that day to make him fall in love with her all over again.


	10. Christian & Kat

_I wanna a man by my side, not a boy who runs and hides. Are you gonna fight for me, die for me, live and breathe for me? Do you care for me?  
"Walk Away" - Kelly Clarkson_

She knows she's going to lose him even before she has him. There was that brief flirtation during First Year and that pointless kiss on her birthday, the one that really set off the whole Christian-Tara downward spiral of disastrous love in the first place. But as soon as he starts paying a little too much attention to her and that damn stuffed animal shows up, she can smell the inevitable disaster. There are some things you just can't stop, and the Webster-Reed train wreck is one of them.

That doesn't stop her from having a little fun first, though. She likes him, she actually likes him _ a lot_. Girls like Kat don't really do the whole crush thing but he's cute and they have fun together and it seems mostly harmless. It's only after her heart gets involved that it becomes a problem, and she knew standing there on the docks that night, she shouldn't have ever let that kiss happen. And then it does and they're hiding everything from her best friend and the injury happens and Tara leaves. She just leaves, and Kat knows that there isn't anything she can do right now to bring her - or their friendship - back to Sydney.

They eventually start hanging out for real, and it slowly becomes something more than casual. She can read the judgement in Abigail's eyes and the discomfort in Ethan's and the disappointment in Sammy's. It's the last one that hurts them both the most; he's their best friend. He pretends not to take sides, but she knows that he is the only one that Tara is still talking to with any kind of regularity. He avoids being alone with them whenever he can and even resorts to dragging Isabelle along whenever some group activity pops up.

And then Tara comes back and she forgives Christian first, and Kat honestly doesn't understand why his betrayal seems like so much less to her talented friend. Abigail explains one night that it was like stealing someone else's part, this really important starring role, and how it's really hard to come back after an embarrassment like that. They don't talk about how her roommate is thinking about the way Isabelle kissed Ethan all those weeks ago or how Kat finally gets that Tara believed she'd been permanently cast as the leading lady in Christian's life.

But now, they are staring at their friends gracefully spinning round and round on the ice rink, and all Kat can think about is how it's over. She knows she should be angry, but she just can't find it in her to get mad. She's too tired, too emotionally exhausted and drained to waste her energy on the uselessness of getting upset. Instead, she calmly and plainly tells him that it's over. He starts to argue with her but can't find the words when she points out that he should be trying to get her to change her mind. He doesn't fight for her, and it's then, and only then, that she give's up fighting for him - for _them. _

She eventually skates off to join her friends on the ice and catches him leaving out of the corner of her eye. She knows he watches Tara and he watches her, he watches all of them. There are times when she knows he thinks he doesn't belong, and those were the moments she knew that she got him better than anyone. She had never belonged anywhere, not with the kind of childhood she'd had. They'd been abandoned in very different ways, and she had started to believe somewhere along the way that he would be the one to never leave her. When he disappears out of sight, she finally accepts that she was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Sammy asks as he skates by, Abigail trailing after him in a fit of giggles. While the girl whips around to do a series of complicated turns, Sammy turns back sharply to look at his friend with concern. "Did you guys...?"

Kat nods silently before admitting, "Yeah, it's over."

"You okay?"

"Will be, Sammy, I will be," she promises with the bravest smile she can feign. He reaches down and squeezes her wrist before tugging her after him. They meet Abigail in the middle of the rink and the three of them link arms, and Kat feels a little safer than she did a few minutes ago. When Abigail asks if she needs to hurt him like she had threatened in their room that night, Kat only smiles fondly and shakes her head. "But thanks for the offer, it's good to know that you've got my back."

They don't talk about it again until after he's gone. She finds Christian the morning after the memorial on the beach, and they sit side by side on the docks silently until he finally finds the words to apologize.

"I never meant to hurt you, Kat. After awhile, I just knew it was wrong."

She shrugs with one shoulder before allowing her eyes to find his. "It doesn't matter anymore. This, this whole thing, it doesn't matter anymore. I deserved more than you could give me, and I get that now. I just didn't want you to be another person who left me behind, so I held on longer than I should have. The only thing I will say is the one thing that Sammy wanted you to know. She's happy, Christian, really happy with Ben. After everything this year, she deserves that much. She deserves better than you can give her right now, too. Maybe someday you'll be ready to give her more, but until then, let her be happy. We all need all the joy we can find in this world of ours."

Kat doesn't wait for his response as she swings her long legs back onto the dock and walks away. It's her turn to leave him this time, her turn to keep her head held high and know that this is the right choice. All the feelings, the ones that hurt so damn much only a month ago, they're absent as she heads toward the studio to dance the rest of the confusion away. He would never fight for her, but Kat finally understood that maybe she had to fight for herself.


	11. Ollie & Sammy

_So hold on, hold on to who you are, hold onto your heart.  
"Your Bones" - Of Monsters and Men_

No relationship is perfect but nearly all of them have at least one perfect moment. This is what Sammy clings to after the tearful breakup with Ollie. He knew that the guy was a little bit messed up when they got together, but since he was still figuring things out for himself, Sammy knew that he didn't have room to judge. However, Ollie had really started taking an active role in helping him train, Sammy had thought that they got past this gigantic hurdle, and he could have never foreseen the way his boyfriend would just give up on him like that.

So when he starts to doubt himself a little and begins to believe that the words that Ollie said might just be true, Sammy remembers what it was like to have Ollie believe in him. He had meant what he said when he called him the most talented dancer at the Academy. He had never seen someone with the raw skill and determined focus that Ollie naturally just possessed. It was everything he wanted to emulate with his own dancing, but it would never come as easily as it did Ollie. Not that he didn't have the hustle to put in the work. It just meant that every minute Ollie spent practicing put him on an entirely different plane that most people would never even get close to, no matter how hard they worked.

"I am thinking that we could add a grand jete after the glissade and then go right into a few barrell turns," Ollie said as he stepped back off the floor, envisioning the sequence in his head. He grabbed the pencil from behind his ear and scrawled it down on the notebook they'd been using to plan Sammy's routine. "And I know that you're not ready for the crescent bend, but I think we might be able to get it ready in time."

"Actually, I've been working on that," Sammy grinned proudly. He stepped to the middle of the floor, rolling his shoulders slightly to loosen up his torso. It was an incredibly difficult move for many dancers, and it had proven to be quite challenging for Sammy to grasp. He had seen Ollie pull it off flawlessly, and it had been a regular in Ethan's repertoire when he was an active dancer at the Academy. It felt really important for him to get it right. "You ready?"

"Impress me, Lieberman," Ollie teased.

Sammy nodded once and then went straight into a strong arabesque with his left leg. He held steady, keeping his lines long and clean like they had drilled into his head for years. Then, he slowly bent at the waste, turning slowly as he did so that his bend was aimed toward the non-existent audience.

"Watch your arms," Ollie commanded as he moved beside him. He pulled his body into the same position, bending perfectly so that his body was at this impossible angle. "There you go, Sammy, you've got it. That's it."

With a relieved smile, Sammy pulled back and completed three fouette turns before saluting to the non-existent crowd. Ollie laughed as he mimicked his boyfriend, ending with a perfect leg back in the familiar finishing position.

"So?"

"You impressed me, Lieberman," Ollie said, almost shyly. Sammy stepped up and rested his hand casually on his right hip, allowing the other to travel up to cup his flushed cheek. "Seems like you've been doing that a lot lately."

"You're not the only one who is impressed," Sammy let on. They hadn't said the three words yet, but Sammy knew that he had those feelings for Ollie. After only having ever truly felt them for Abigail, he knew the familiar warmth in his stomach that had slowly been bubbling up these past few weeks. Rather than say it, he simply kissed Ollie lightly for a moment and smiled again. "We should get back to work."

"We should," Ollie agreed as he slipped his arm around Sammy's waist and pulled him an inch or two closer to him, "but first, I think you should tell me what you were just thinking about because maybe I was thinking it too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Ollie confirmed with a happy grin. "Definitely, yeah."

Sammy thought about saying them for a minute but it really just felt like giving away too much too soon. Instead, he smiled that crooked boyish smile and gazed up at his boyfriend with the best adoring look he could pull off. "I really like you, Ol, I'm so glad we are together," he offered up genuinely. It would have to do because that was all he had to give right now. "Let's get back to work."

He would never say those words to Ollie, but he would always know that was one of those rare and fleeting perfect moments where everything just worked the way that it should in a relationship. Later, after the Prixe was over and Sammy was back with Abigail, the two of them managed to be friends again. All of the anger that had happened in those waning hours leading up to the biggest competition of Sammy's life didn't matter once everything was all over. He would always be happy that he hadn't said those words to anyone other than Abigail, and Ollie would always know that didn't mean that he hadn't felt them.


	12. Ben & Tara

_Wrapped around you, the whole world just disappears. Time stands still when I'm with you, a moment feels like years.  
"Sanctuary" - Alex Clare_

Ben knew all kinds of weird things about Tara, so on the thirty-sixth day they were together, he handed her a stack of plain index cards with one of those weird things written on each of them. They were numbered by the day that corresponded to when he had learned each one of these little facts and served as a twisted scrapbook to their relationship.

Day One: You like to have exactly eleven marshmallows in your hot chocolate and won't drink a single sip until they've all dissolved into a fluffy layer on top.

Day Two: You know all the words to "The Rainbow Connection" in Dutch but can't say a single other word in the language.

Day Three: The warmest place on your body is between your third and fourth toes on your right foot.

Day Four: Your all-time favorite color is the faded red of the barn that sits on the back of your parents' property but only the northeastern corner that's been worn the most from the sun.

Day Five: You hate The Rolling Stones.

Day Six: You keep a book of favorite quotes and lyrics because you saw it one time on a movie and really like the idea of collecting something, even if it's just words.

Day Seven: You always scrape the bottom of your ballet shoes three times before you step up to the barre and sometimes add a fourth if you're having a really bad day.

Day Eight: The softest place on your body is this little patch of skin behind your left ear and you shiver super cutely whenever I rub it when I kiss you.

Day Nine: Even though you tell Kat and Sammy they are your closest friends, you really consider your mom to be your best friend.

Day Ten: You have read Baryshnikov's biography eighteen times.

Day Eleven: You really, really, really suck at Dance, Dance Revolution, which makes no sense since you spend most of your life dancing professionally.

Day Twelve: You are really, really, really good at Call of Duty, a talent you attribute to your father wanting a son and teaching you to shoot by using old discarded toe shoes for target practice.

Day Thirteen: You have six different smiles and four different kisses.

Day Fourteen: Your favorite flowers are the bright pink hydrangeas that used to grow on the edge of your grandma's garden when you were a kid, and you swear that they must have been a special kind because none ever seem as beautiful as those were.

Day Fifteen: You refuse to write in red pen.

Day Sixteen: The most ticklish place on your body is the nape of your neck, just beneath the place where your hair meets your collar, and sometimes you giggle just from changing your shirt.

Day Seventeen: Your favorite way to have eggs is poached with fresh black pepper and a few chives on the side.

Day Eighteen: You don't want Kat to know how much you still cherish the autographed picture of Natasha you got during First Year, even though you know she's a disaster of a mother and not much better of a human being.

Day Nineteen: Sometimes you like to wear pearls and heels when you vacuum just so you can feel proper and fancy.

Day Twenty: You have forty-two four-leaf clovers pressed in contact paper and hidden between the pages of "The First Noel" sheet music.

Day Twenty-One: You really like it when I whisper your name after I kiss you like I'm in awe (which I usually am).

Day Twenty-Two: You really hate it when I whisper your name after we fight like I'm frustrated (which I usually am).

Day Twenty-Three: You have a scar shaped like a moon on your right index finger that you got when you were trying to cut some lace off old Keds when you were kid, and you wear it like a very strange badge of honor.

Day Twenty-Four: Your sheets always smell like Juicy Fruit gum.

Day Twenty-Five: Your preferred jams are, in order, blackberry, apricot, strawberry and apple cinnamon; it is never, ever grape for you.

Day Twenty-Six: You sometimes hum Beach Boys songs in your sleep but only when you're really happy.

Day Twenty-Seven: You twist your hair when your anxious, three times clockwise and then twice backward.

Day Twenty-Eight: The coldest place on your body is the crook of your left elbow, which is why you love when I slip my arms around you and tuck my hands there when we watch television in the lounge.

Day Twenty-Nine: You laugh out loud when you read the comics in the Sunday paper.

Day Thirty: You want to name your first daughter Alexandra.

Day Thirty-One: You like to keep the television volume on an even number because it feels more complete and sometimes worry that this means you have a little bit of OCD.

Day Thirty-Two: You really coveted this set of fruit-shaped erasers your cousin had when you were a kid and regularly scour the Internet for an exact replica.

Day Thirty-Three: The sexiest place on your body is the swell right above your tailbone, that delicious little patch of skin that sometimes makes an appearance when you're dancing and I get transfixed watching.

Day Thirty-Four: You blush the prettiest shade of crimson when we get caught making out by Ms. Raine, and it's exact same color you turn when you're yelling at Kat for ruining your favorite silk scarf.

Day Thirty-Five: You have this blue candle that you like to smell when you miss home because it smells just like your dad.

Day Thirty-Six: You are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I'm absolutely mad about you.

Ben knew all kinds of weird things about Tara, but he didn't know that she would finally tell him that she loved him too when he handed her a stack of index cards that told her all the reasons he had fallen for her. They were numbered by the day and added up to the moment where they finally defined the relationship for what it was. And the next morning, he handed her one more card to add to the book:

Day Thirty-Seven: The most beautiful parts of your body are your lips when you say you love me and your eyes when they light up as I say it back to you.


	13. Ethan & Kat

_When the world's gone quiet, I see you dancing slow. Feeling satisfied, where you never knew you'd go.  
"We Come Running" - Youngblood Hawke_

He's gone, and she doesn't know how to handle it. She spent an entire lifetime resenting her parents for never being there, and she would take it all back in an instant if she could just know that he was out there somewhere dancing, living, breathing. She must have dialed his voicemail twenty times just to hear his professional voice request that she leave him a message, and she ends up in tears each time. Her friends try to talk to her about it but they know she is only waiting for him. He is the only one who can make this make any sense.

She's not sure how she ends up there, but she ends up in the studio in the middle night. She's seen the dance done a million times, watched from the wings as his dancer of the moment brought his life's work to life in the middle of an illuminated stage. There will be no applause this time, no articles in the paper and accolades amongst the privileged circles back stage. However, it's just as perfect as it ever was when it was danced by the prima ballerinas known the world over. She was made to dance this sad solo, to dance his legacy of _Swan Lake_.

That's how he finds her, tirelessly looping through the same four-minute solo over and over again. She is hauntingly beautiful as she stretches this way and jumps like that and turns with such focused determination that he briefly wonders where this dancer has been hiding for all these years. Even after he says her name, she doesn't stop dancing. She doesn't even bother to glance his way. She only hits repeat on the stereo and returns to her starting position.

He lets her go on like that for a few more run-throughs before he stops the stereo. Even though the music is gone, she continues to dance from the melody memory playing in her head. She pirouettes and then it's gone, her body collapsing into itself as she crashes to the floor. He is at her side in an instant, wrapping her sobbing body in his arms. She buries her face in his chest, clutches at his shirt, curls up into ball against him - anything to feel connected to someone. Her cries echo hollowly into the darkened studio and he realizes after a few minutes that his have joined in somewhere along the way.

"He's gone, Ethan, he's gone," are the only words she can manage through the hysterical and endless sobs. "He's gone, he's gone, he's gone!" Ethan doesn't tell her to calm down or shush her or even try to appease her. He just lets her cry the tears she's held back all these years and allows a few of his own to fill up the empty space he used to take up. "I know, Kitty Kat, I know," is the only response he gave her that feels close to authentic. "I know, I know, I know!"

Their father was many things, but the one thing that they were both confident he had done right was choose to raise Ethan in the same household as Kat so that they would always have each other. Even with him gone, they had that one thing to hold onto when the rest of the world suddenly felt so cold and lonely. They'd probably both have resented him more if it were not for the other, but that was the thing about family - you always find a way to be strong for the other even when you don't want to because it doesn't work when you both fall apart.

"He's gone, Ethan, he's gone."

"I know, Kitty Kat, I know."


	14. Sammy & Kat & Tara

_If you close the door, the night could last forever. Leave the sunshine out and say hello to never. All the people are dancing and they're having such fun. I wish it could happen to me.  
"After Hours" - The Velvet Underground_

"I have to get an A on this test."

"Talking to yourself again, Sammy?"

"Just studying, Tara."

"Well, put the books away, Sammy, we are going out!"

"Kat, I can't. I have to practice with Grace later and have an anatomy test to study for the mean time. I've only just got my GPA back to where it belongs after the whole working thing. The last thing I can afford is a night out when I should be doing homework."

"But c'mon, Sammy, I'm finally back at the Academy and Kat and I only started just getting along again! You have to come out with us to celebrate. You're our best friend, our _gay_ best friend in fact. You totally owe it to us to share your fabulousness with us and show us another side of Sydney."

"What in the world are you talking about, T?"

"What Tara is talking about, dearest Sammy, is Oxford Street. You cannot be properly gay until you have partied at the Midnight Shift! They are doing an all-ages thing tonight and my mother got us on the list. Apparently Natasha is a very big deal among your set, a gay icon or something. We're expected, darling, we can't let them down!"

"My set? Let who down?"

"The beautiful dancing gay boys, Lieberman!"

"Kat, I've been gay for like two seconds and I sort of have a boyfriend. I hardly think that Ollie would be okay with me going out without him and dancing with all these beautiful boys as you call them."

"But would he object to you dancing with us? You don't have to dance with anyone but Kat and me, I promise. We'll be your beards or protection or whatever. Kat will make sure that everyone keeps away and I'll tell them you have a boyfriend. Just come out with us, we're all going so crazy with midterms coming up and I could really, really, really use the fun!"

"I have to study, Tara!"

"You know you're going to give in, Sammy. You always give in!"

"Not this time, Kat! This time, Sammy Lieberman will prevail."

"And risk letting his two very best friends in the whole world down?"

"Really, with the guilt, T? I expected more out of you."

"I don't know why. She has that whole farmer's daughter routine down perfectly. She uses that wide-eyed innocence to get her way all the time. How have you not noticed this by now?"

"Don't tell him my secrets, Kat! He is already immune to my feminine wiles!"

"What feminine wiles?"

"Hey, I'll have you know that I can be quite sexy, Sammy. In fact, if you go out with us tonight, you can see just how I well I can use my prowess to score us free drinks. Of course, we won't be able to drink them, but I can still totally get them."

"Now this I have to see! Come on, Sammy, you have to go out with us now!"

"No fair, you two are double teaming me."

"Not really, but if that's what you're into, we can probably arrange something."

"Kat!"

"Calm down, T, I'm just kidding. Honestly, Sammy, we're not trying to team up on you. We should probably totally respect your boundaries and let you study, but we've never been to Oxford Street. Neither have you! We always do these big firsts together, and I just thought that tonight could be the night we mark this one off the list."

"Well, when you put it like that..."

"We're wearing him down, Webster!"

"Please, Sammy, pretty please!"

"Wow, T, Kat's right. You really are pretty good at that whole innocent act."

"It's not an act!"

"Uh, you just said told Sammy it was."

"Well, maybe I have split personalities, whatever! I just want him to come out with us."

"Alright, fine, give me fifteen minutes to get ready."

"Yay, Sammy, thank you!"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to hug me so tight, T. I got it, you're happy. You're welcome."

"Time's wasting, Lieberman."

"Yeah, you're welcome, too, Kat."

"Uh huh, hurry up. We'll be waiting in the lounge."

"Well, I guess I could probably manage just fine with a C."


	15. Group

_I've seen your picture, your name in lights above it. This is your big debut. It's like a dream come true, and when you smile for the camera, I know they're gonna love it.  
"Peg" - Steely Dan_

Since the day they arrived to the Academy, there has been one clear goal - a contract with the company. Every dancer at the school wants one, but only a handful of girls and boys from each year end up with one. They've dreamed of dancing with the Australian Ballet their entire lives, but it pretty comes down to one audition at the end of Third Year before a few of their key instructors and the heads of the company. Most people come out of the room with a pink slip in hand and tears in their eyes. For the lucky few, the official contract on heavy linen paper is the beginning of a whole new life.

Abigail is happy that the Academy decided to forgo their typical alphabetical approach to auditions and allowed them to sign up for their performance order. She is slated about halfway through the day, one before Tara and one after Kat. They have been training this for years, with Kat even putting double hours over the break so she could complete classes with the rest of her friends. They're all silent now as they wait, wrapped up in their own rituals and routines. Kat is meditating to some very loud rock music, Tara is absently twirling a four-leaf clover between her fingers while looking at her assortment of shoes and Abigail is using her tension bands to stretch out her legs while focusing on her breathing.

"I can't believe this is it," Tara muttered as she picked up a pair of toe shoes and then sat the down. The last three years come down to five minutes and one classical piece in front of the most important ballet figures in the country. Talk about pressure."

"It's one dance, T," Kat reminded her as she pulled an ear bud from her right ear.

"One dance that can pretty much decide our entire lives," Abigail countered.

"No, it's not," Kat argued. "It's five minutes out of our lives, but we decide our own fate. Even if we don't make it, we get to decide what happens from here on out. We have given everything to ballet these past three years, and we have pretty much done everything that we were supposed to do. Now it's our turns to make the rules. I say that we give ballet five more minutes inside that room and then we leave it all in the studio. We dance our guts and our hearts out and then we go out tonight and we celebrate with our boyfriends because we deserve to have a little fun!"

Tara and Abigail exchanged an amused smile. "Nice pep talk there, Kat," Abigail teased. "But I suppose you're right. All we can do is our best. Besides, I think Ethan has been feeling a little neglected these past few weeks."

"You're just lucky that yours isn't all caught up in this stress," Kat complained good-naturedly. "I thought Christian would be the last one to freak out about auditions, but he's been all inside his head this whole week. I think he could use a night out almost as much as me."

Tara shrugged. "I don't know, Ben's been pretty great."

"Of course he has," Kat and Abigail said in unison before the trio of girls dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Just then, one of their classmates came out of the studio, her face cast downward and tears glimmering in her eyes. Kat had only a moment to look terrified before Ms. Raine called her name. She took a deep breath as she stood up to adjust her pale pink performance tutu. "Here goes nothing," is all she managed to say before disappearing into the shuttered studio to welcome her fate.

They had all agreed to not look at their sealed results until they had all three completed their auditions. Kat came out a few minutes later looking decent, a closed envelope in her hand. "Give 'em hell, Armstrong," Kat ordered as Abigail headed into the studio. She smiled nervously in response before following Ms. Raine into the room.

"How was it?" Tara asked. "Was it as bad as you thought it'd be?"

"It was what it was," Kat shrugged, having already accepted that the outcome was in the envelope she was still clutching in her hand. "We'll find out soon enough. For now, focus on yourself."

Tara didn't have much time to envision her perfect routine because Abigail was soon joining them again on the benches outside. Kat tapped her envelope to Abby's as she collapsed down next to her, smiling encouragingly despite her friend's Mona Lisa expression. "Good luck, Tara," Abigail offered up as Kat gave her a little wave. Tara was enough in the zone that she didn't look back. Five minutes until Doom's Day.

"That was terrifying," Abigail whispered once Tara was gone. "Scariest moment of my life."

"Tell me about it," Kat grinned. "I just didn't want to freak her out."

"Trust me, it took everything I had not to warn her," she shook her head. "I can't believe we are finally here."

"I can't believe we're here together!"

They both had to laugh a little at that one. "I'm glad that some things do change."

"Me too, Abs," Kat said genuinely as she wrapped her arm around her friend in a side hug. "We started ballet together. It only makes sense that we'd end this with each other. I sorta can't imagine doing it without you now. I think that's a good thing."

"That remains to be seen," Abby teased her slightly as she held up her envelope. "No, seriously, whatever happens, I'm glad the three of us did this together."

"I guess that makes three of us," Tara announced as she held up her envelope. "That was excruciating."

"Come on," Abigail announced as she stood up. She reached for Kat's arm and then Tara's, looping them all together so that they were in one line almost reminiscent of _The Wizard of Oz_. For a moment, she considered the semblance between her friends and the group - how Tara finally had her courage and Abigail had found her heart and Kat had found her way home. "Let's open these upstairs."

The three girls went up to the room that Abigail still shared with Kat. They had all lived in that little room now. It had become their home, their True North, over the past three years. They all climbed onto Abby's bed, sitting in a half circle so they could face each other.

"One at a time or all together?" Kat asked.

"I think all together," Tara answered. "Yes, all at once on the count of three."

"Okay, here we go," Kat declared as she slid her long index finger beneath the flap of the envelope. "One..."

Tara took a deep breath and ignored how white her knuckles had turned as she gripped the envelope tightly. "Two..."

Abigail had to snort a little at the dramatics of it all, but that didn't mean that her own heart wasn't racing a million miles a minute. "Three!"

The room was silent as the girls each read their letters and then there was the sound of sobs. Tara looked at Kat, who has covered her mouth as tears came down her face. She then glanced at Abigail's crying face. She wasn't sure if she should say anything until she heard Kat's little gasp. "I made it!"

"Me too!" Abigail managed through her tears. "The Australian Ballet!"

Tara could finally celebrate. "You guys, we all made it!"

"They've assigned me to the chorus in a featured slot," Kat said as she scanned further down the letter. "I'm going to be in the Australian Ballet."

Tara leaned across the bed to hug her friend excitedly. "I am going to be in the chorus too with one guaranteed featured solo contingent upon my audition status," Tara read as she held out her letter as evidence. "This is my dream!"

Abigail went quiet again as she reread the words. "Abs, what does your say?" Kat asked, but the girl remained silent. She read the letter a third time to make sure she understood what it said.

"I've been selected as a principal," she realized aloud. "Along with one male performer from Third Year, we have been chosen as the premier pas de deux partners to represent the newest recruits to the Australian Ballet."

"Oh my god!" Tara squealed as she launched herself at Abigail. Kat quickly joined the group hug.

A minute later, there were knocks at the door and the sound of male voices on the other side. "How'd we fare, ladies?" Ben asked nervously as he came into the room, wrapping his arm around Tara.

"We all got in," Kat grinned. "You two?"

Abigail was too busy accepting a congratulatory kiss from Ethan to hear Christian announce that the boys had also made it. It was nearly unheard of for them to take this many people, but it was widely accepted that this was a special class.

"I'll spend most of my time in the male quartet, but one of the heads spoke to me afterward. They are working on a small solo piece now they think I'll be perfect for come summer," Ben said proudly.

"A piece that is being choreographed and arranged by Ethan," Christian pointed out.

"Really?!" Abigail asked excitedly as she hugged him tightly. "I'm so proud of you!"

"You're proud? Look at you, babe," Ethan grinned. "You made it."

"Yes, and from what I hear, you will get to train next to me for another year," Christian boasted as he kissed the top of Kat's head. "Wanna do a third year of pas de deux, partner?"

"Really?!" Abigail squealed again, this time launching herself at Christian. They had heard all year long how their chemistry together had become something special. Kat and Ethan would have probably been jealous if they didn't know their mates so well by now. "I knew it! Well, I didn't know it but I hoped it! Christian, this is spectacular."

"Amazing," Kat hummed in agreement as she leaned up to kiss her boyfriend.

Since the day they arrived to the Academy, there had been one clear goal - a contract with the company. Every dancer at the school wanted one, and their group was fortunate enough to walk away with five. They had dreamed of being part of the Australian Ballet, and in a few short months, they would see that dream come true. It might have comedown to one audition but it was one that came on their own terms. The only tears they cried that day were those of joy, but they were far briefer than the laughter and smiles that lasted well into the night. They were the lucky few, and they didn't need those official contracts to tell them that.

* * *

Author's note: Unless I get a request for a specific group that I haven't written about, you can consider this series complete. Thank you for reading!


	16. Tara & Abigail & Kat

_I've been seeing all my old friends in the city and walking alone in Central Park. Doing all the things I neglected, I gave them all up to be in your arms._  
_"Gardenia" - Mandy Moore_

"You realize this is like the lamest New Year's Eve imaginable, right?"

Tara rolled her eyes and glared at Abigail. The three of them were holed up in Tara's bedroom on the farm, clad in their rattiest pajamas and surrounded by generous helpings of empty calories. Kat wore a cucumber clay mask that left her face a less-than-appealing shade of green, Tara's toes were being held in place by foam separators while she painted them hot pink and Abigail's long locks were rolled in big foam curlers. It was a good old-fashioned sleepover dedicated to giving them some time to relax before Third Year officially began.

"Hey, you're the one who ditched Barcelona and my brother to be here," Kat reminded her as she reached for another sour cream and onion crisp. Abigail wrinkled her nose as Kat shoved it into her mouth and munched loudly. "You gave up the chance for romance or whatever you two are pretending isn't going on to hang out with T and me because we're your best friends."

Abigail smiled and nodded slightly. "Yeah, when did that happen?" she teased as she took a long sip of her lemon seltzer water. "Besides, after today, we start getting into full-on preparation mode. Classes begin in ten days and I haven't danced actual ballet a month. It's ridiculous how lazy I've gotten. It's like I'm one of you two."

"We love you too, Abigail," Tara retorted sarcastically. "You're lucky that you get to hang out with Kat and me. We're the hottest New Year's dates you could ever want."

"Just don't try to kiss me at midnight," Kat laughed. "All jokes aside, I'm really glad you're here. No offense to Tara but I've seen a grand total of four other people since I got here. This city girl was starting to go a wee bit stir crazy."

Abigail slung her arm around Kat and hugged her slightly. "Ah, poor Kat, no boys want to play with you?"

Kat glared at her. "There are no boys on the farm other than her dad and one of the farmhands who stayed behind for the holidays to help out," she replied. "T and I made a pact anyhow."

"A pact?"

"No boys for Third Year," Tara explained. "We've spent the past two years caught up in boys and relationship drama. It's time to really get serious. If I want to get a contract, I have to focus on dancing. It has to be my priority. I'll have time to figure all of that out later."

"Boys only seem to get me in trouble. Good things tend to happen for me when I actually put ballet first, so when Tara suggested it, I thought it might be a good idea to try it out," Kat added. "We would have included you, but you disappeared to Barcelona before either of us could really get a hold of you."

"You were there when Ethan picked me up for the airport," Abigail reminded her. "In fact, you gave him - what was it - sixteen tips for surviving living with me."

"And he lasted three whole weeks before you showed up on T's doorstep!"

Abigail crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll have you know that your brother begged me not to go. I'm his muse. He needs me," she boasted. "And he also happens to be quite taken with me, absolutely mad!"

"And yet, you're here," Tara pointed out. "What's that all about?"

"Like I said, I have to get focused on ballet."

"So if it's that easy, why don't you do the pact with us," Kat suggested. "It's not like Ethan will be here to tempt you. We can take extra classes together, workout, have some quality girl time. It'll be all about female empowerment."

"Maybe if we're lucky our periods will sync up," Abigail deadpanned.

"Come on, Abigail, you obviously missed us or you wouldn't have come. Why is it so hard for you to admit that you might actually like us and that we might actually be friends?"

It's that question, the one Tara already knows the answer to, that makes them all three laugh. They know Abigail loves them. They are her best friends, even if she doesn't always think that she has time for best friends. "Alright, alright, I missed you two," she finally relented. "Maybe the pact would be a good idea."

"Don't tell Ethan I suggested it," Kat implored her.

"It's all your fault, and I will make sure that he is well aware of it when I inevitably break his heart with the news that I will not be returning to Spain so that I can spend my days at Pilates classes with his little sister."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tara cut in. "He thinks you're coming back?"

"I technically fly out in two days for five days," Abigail confessed. "It's the last chance I'd get to see him before class starts up again."

"What happened to ten days to focus? Whatever, maybe the pact could wait until the first day of class," Tara suggested, earning a slightly dirty look from Kat. "Kat, they're in love."

"Whoa, who said anything about love?"

"Shut up, Abby, we're going to be sisters!"

"Maybe I need a no Kat and Tara pact for Third Year."

"Like you would survive without us," Tara said. "We make you better."

Abigail looked at Kat and then Tara. "Yeah, you do. We make each other better."

"Aw, guys!" Kat squealed, throwing her arms and pulling them both into a hug.

Somewhere in the distance, they could hear the faint echo of fireworks as the clock turned to midnight. "Happy New Year!"

"Happy New..."

Abigail managed to get two words out before her phone started ringing. Kat peered over her shoulder and saw Ethan's name flashing on the screen. Abigail curled up and started murmuring softly to Ethan just as Tara's phone began beeping incessantly.

"Ben," she explained as her fingers flew over the buttons. "He says to tell you all Happy New Year." Tara paused for a beat and grinned. "He misses me."

Kat rolled her eyes as her other best friend lost herself in an endless exchange of text messages with Ben. Abigail was still grinning as she told Ethan about the pact and laughed at whatever reply he would inevitably scold Kat about later. She probably would have been her typically cynical self if her own phone hadn't chosen that very minute to chime. She couldn't help but smile a minute when his photo popped up to tell her he was calling.

"I just wanted to tell you Happy New Year and that you were right, the fireworks on the Gold Coast are pretty amazing."

She spent a few minutes talking to Christian about his road trip but hung up when both Tara and Abigail stowed away their phones. "Okay, so maybe we won't _totally_ avoid the boys this year..."

* * *

AN: For shades. Remember, requests are welcome.


	17. Ben & Tara & Christian

_I meant it all and every part and every word right from the start. I'll never let this love fall in the middle 'cause you know you broke the hardest part. You know you broke the hardest heart._  
_"In the Middle" - Mat Kearney_

Tara was tired of a lot of things. She was tired of never being good enough in class, perpetually chasing after a perfection she knew would never come. She was tired of Kat pressuring her to have more fun and Abigail telling her to take things more seriously. She tired of always having to figure out how she was going to pay for the extras that came so easily to most of her friends. Most of all, she was tired of being caught in the middle of a damn love triangle and she was tired of being sorry.

Now, to be fair, she knew that it was her fault she was in those predicaments in the first place. If she hadn't fallen for some ridiculously handsome guy who smelled like Christmas during an audition, she would have never gotten the chance to have Ethan fall for her back. And if she hadn't chased that stupid dog down to the beach and gave into her impulses, she wouldn't have cheated on Ethan with Christian. That photograph never would have been taken and she would have never had to wonder how it was possible she could feel so strongly for two people at the same time.

Of course, because history seems to do so, it would eventually repeat itself and she'd end up in the middle another fated trio. She was the odd man out this time, watching helplessly as her boyfriend (okay, ex-boyfriend) fell hard for her best had been so wrapped up in making her relationship with Christian perfect and then in her dancing that she had destroyed it before it had room to breathe. She'd had so much going on that she hadn't even seen what was happening right before her eyes. Before she knew it, an awkward confession was made and she was on the outside looking in.

She thought that she was finally on the right track after she finally forgave both Christian and Tara. Her trip to the hospital had given her a new lease on Ben, and they struck up a genuinely great friendship. It didn't take long for her to want something more, and once he realized that her feelings were real, Ben admitted that maybe he did too. His little ice rink declaration told her as much, and they fell into a relationship. It sort of hit a notable bump after they lost Sammy, but spending the summer apart from Ben made her appreciate him more.

That didn't mean that she didn't miss Christian. They had reconnected in the most real way possible at Sammy's wake and in the days surrounding his death. She knew why he had come to see her that day and she knew the things he had said (and hadn't said) had all the power in the world. Even if she was completely faithful to Ben, it didn't stop her from knowing that there was still something there. And that's how they found themselves on the brink of disaster once again at the beginning of Third Year.

"Tara, I was hoping we could talk."

She looked up from where she was stretched out on the lounge floor. Ballet shoes surrounded her just like they had when she had been working on her solo so long ago. "I'm kind of busy," she told him as she scraped the bottom of an old toe shoe. "I need to get my shoes ready for class tomorrow and then I am going to meet Ben for a quick dinner."

Christian raked his fingers through his dark hair. "We haven't had any time to catch up since I got back to Sydney," he replied. He hadn't really been expecting her to put the distance back between them after all the great conversations they'd had over the holidays.

"I haven't told you about my trip or shown you any of the pictures I took. I haven't even given you your gift."

"I'm sorry, Christian. Maybe we could catch lunch tomorrow after class with everyone. I've barely seen the girls, and I have yet to even see Ollie at all. Abigail said Ethan is going to be in town for a few more days. It'd be perfect."

"Are you avoiding me, Training Bra?"

"What? No," she said softly, and she knew he knew she was lying. "Christian, c'mon. I'm with Ben now. You know that. It's not fair to keep doing this."

"Keep doing what?" Ben asked happily as he came into the lounge. He tossed his hoodie on the couch before leaning down to kiss Tara in greeting. "Hey, Christian."

Christian narrowed his eyes and nodded his hello while Tara turned her attention to her boyfriend. "It's not fair that he has all this talent and won't use it," she fibbed easily. She wasn't sure if Ben knew she was lying, but he seemed to accept her answer.

"Are you ready for dinner?"

"Yup," she replied as she started to gather up her toe shoes. Ben took them from her arms without her even asking. With a half-apologetic, half-annoyed look in Christian's direction, she followed her boyfriend out of the room.

Once he had discarded them into a dresser drawer, Ben reached for her hand and pulled her into his arms. "You okay? You seemed a little weird out there, maybe distracted," he said with genuine concern. "We don't have to go to dinner if you want to get some rest for tomorrow. I can go pick something up."

She couldn't help but grin as she buried her head in his chest. "You are amazing, you know that? You always take care of me." Tara pulled back to look up into his kind eyes. He kissed her forehead and then her lips. "Let's go to that little Italian place you like so much. It might be awhile again before I can have pasta."

Tara tucked her hand in Ben's proudly and followed him back toward the lounge. Christian was there, blankly flipping through the television channels while Abigail ignored him as she stretched out her calves. "Have fun," her roommate chirped as she waved. Christian remained silent, and that's when Tara knew that she had made the right choice.

She would always have feelings for Christian. He was her real first love, but that didn't mean that it was meant to last forever. And it didn't mean that she didn't feel things now and that they wouldn't come back around soon. It only meant, for now, her heart belonged with Ben, and she wanted to try to make it work. She had meant what she said when she told him he was amazing. He actually made her life easier, he made her life better. In all its beautiful simplicity, their love was something she truly believed in. She wasn't caught in the middle anymore, and for that, she would never be sorry.

* * *

_AN: For Ailes. Requests welcome._


	18. Kat & Christian & Tara

_Your faith is strong, but I can only fall short for so long. Down the road, later on, you will hate that I never gave more to you than half of my heart, but I can't stop loving you.  
"Half Of My Heart" - John Mayer and Taylor Swift_

It all started out with a schedule. It wasn't a formal arrangement, just this little pattern he worked out in his head. It helped him to keep things straight in his brain and managed to keep the girls off his trail for awhile. Tara was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He spent Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with Kat. He begged off from both the girls on Sunday, telling them both he needed to rehearse or wanted to hang out with Sammy, whatever excuse he could come up with to get a little time of his own. Maybe they didn't see it, maybe they didn't want to see it. He knew he didn't want to do it but it felt like he really didn't have a choice.

Christian wasn't exactly sure how he had ended up in two relationships with two best friends and neither of them knew that he was dating the other two months in. He felt like a pretty bad guy most of the time, but he also knew that he couldn't pick between them. They brought completely different thing to his life. Tara was all depth and true feelings, the kind of thing you know you're supposed to want eventually. Kat was fun and being young and living in the moment. There was something attractive about both of them, and he couldn't figure out which path his life was supposed to take.

"Come on, let's go skydiving," Kat would suggest, and Christian couldn't wait until the next adrenaline-pumping activity her pretty little blonde brain would come up with. They were pure chemistry, and the way body craved her was unmatched. She didn't make him talk about his feelings and loved seeing the latest action movies with him at the cinema and didn't care about the empty calories that came with an evening of pizza and beers. Kat let him just be himself, and there was something to be said about the comfort of the known.

"I think we should have two children," Tara would dream, and Christian could almost see it coming true. She was this amazing dreamer who made him want to reach for more, and the way she believed in him made him believe it could happen too. She always told him how much she loved him and always asked to see pictures of his mom whenever she'd see that old album out on his bed and was really great about showing up with hot soup and cough medicine when he started to take a cold. Tara reminded him that he had an entire (promising) future ahead of him, and there was something to be said about the excitement of the unknown.

"You're so damn sexy," Christian would murmur when he was above her and over her, playing Kat in just the right way that she would make this really amazing sound that he never got tired of. She didn't make him work for it, she thrived in the intimacy of this part of their relationship. This was her way of letting him know that she cared, that she wanted more than just those thrilling little moments of fleeting excitement. Tara didn't understand this part of him. It was something that seemed to be solely reserved for Kat. He loved her in this way, and no other girl could compare.

"You're so damn sweet," Christian would whisper when she was laying beside him, her head tucked in the crook of his arm with this incredible warmth that he had never felt before. She didn't make him work for the words, she thrived on being able to say them openly and freely whenever he needed to hear them. She never wanted him to question how she felt about anything. Kat didn't understand that part of him. It was something that seemed to belong only to Tara. He loved her in this way, and no other girl could compare.

He tried to imagine if he could take parts of them and combine them into his dream girl, what that would like. However, Christian couldn't see a world where just parts of Kat and parts of Tara would fulfill him. He needed both of them, all of them, to be this happy. And he knew it was an incredibly fragile tightrope that he walked. They'd eventually learn the truth and both hate him. He knew that it would absolutely destroy him to lose both of them like that but he couldn't stop. He was addicted to being loved. These girls were it for him.

* * *

_For anonymous. Requests welcome._


	19. Christian & Abigail

_So tell me what I have to do to win you over. You'll never have to wonder if you need another. You'll never have to wonder if I understand.  
"Over" - Blake Shelton_

Abigail had watched him for three years and watched him from her periphery as his partner for two. She had watched him drift from Tara to Kat and back to Tara again. She had watched him deal with his family, or lack thereof, and how that invariably had an impact on his decisions, criminal and otherwise. She had watched him deal with losing his best friend just as they had all had to deal with losing Sammy. And now, she watched him watching her.

It started out simple enough. He was fresh off his latest breakup with Tara, both of them so terribly angry at each other that a rift as wide as the Pacific had been ripped in their little inner circle. Ben was naturally on Christian's side since he could relate to the fleeting emotions Tara seemed to possess when it came to her love life. In the name of sisterhood and all things ex-boyfriend, Kat had staked her claim in Tara's camp. Neither side was talking to the other, leaving Abigail stuck squarely in the middle.

She knew she should probably have some kind of loyalty to her roommate, but she also felt a certain pull toward the guy she relied on to hold her up – literally – every single day. Christian had become her friend over the past two years. She wasn't sure why it had happened or how it had happened, just that it had. Abigail could relate to him in a way that she couldn't with the girls, never afraid to pull punches in or outside the studio. Christian understood the dark parts of her, the things that were so messed up that she would never vocalize them. He had done his share of bad things and rarely found it in himself to judge anyone for their actions.

"Could you stop staring at me?"

"Probably," Christian allowed with a slight shrug. He was sprawled out on the floor of one of the private ballet studios, reclining lazily when he should be working through the new pas de deux with Abigail. She stopped mid-turn to scowl at him. "C'mon, let's do something fun."

Abigail paced the floor back to her starting position. "I've seen where your kind of fun gets a girl," she remarked with a perfectly arched eyebrow. "Tara hasn't stopped wailing for a week, and Kat seems to have taken up permanent residence in our room. I've taken to sleeping on the lounge sofa just so I can escape their idle chitchat in the middle of the night. You really did a number on her this time, Reed."

"Hey, you know it's not like that," he replied defensively, sitting up almost defiantly as he glared up at her. "Tara is the one who pushed too hard – she always pushes too hard. She was on me about defining what we were, figuring out what we're doing next year. We have eleven months left before we have to figure out what comes next."

She could tell this conversation wasn't getting them any closer to practicing any time soon, so Abigail elected to sink to the ground for some deep stretching while they talked. "Well, excuse Tara for wanting something more, Christian," Abigail retorted pointedly. "Damn her for seeing your potential. Damn her for being exactly who she has been the past three years ever since we've known her and you've tried to untangle this irrevocably tangled web you two have woven over our group. Damn her for caring."

He looked sheepishly at his hands. "I appreciate it, I do, it's just that… It always feels like she wants me to be someone I'm not. Just when I think I might be able to be that guy, it becomes abundantly clear that I'm just not," he tried to explain.

"Tara does that. She sets really high expectations and has a hard time accepting when people don't live up to them. She's probably harsher on you than anyone except maybe herself."

Christian nodded in agreement. "Kat's the exact opposite, you know? She basically has no expectations for anything, and that can be nice, I guess. Other times, it just seems like she doesn't care. It never felt like it really mattered to her one way or another. I suppose that's what a guy like me should want."

"Or maybe you should want someone who accepts you for who you are and understands that is the part that really matters," Abigail proposed. "That's what I want. I want to know that a guy sees me and that he gets me, warts and all. That's the only way any of this really works. You can't change a person. You can't just let things drift in the wind. You have to put the work in and adapt accordingly to reality."

"Says a girl from experience?"

"Sammy," she confirmed with a briefly sad smile. "I was so mean to him First Year. I had it all planned in my head how it was supposed to be, and I somehow thought being with him would make all of it less. It was only in hindsight that I saw how he made this experience so much more. But even with that, he wanted me to be someone different – nicer, less competitive, freer."

"But people like us…"

"People like us don't work that way."  
It was the first time either of them had mutually acknowledged that they shared some very fundamental traits. She smiled over at Christian, trying in vain to ignore the way he had moved closer to her on the floor. He reached out and played with her fingers for a moment, and she knew that he was thinking about kissing her. Since she was thinking about it too, she figured now would be the best time to put distance between them.

"Christian…" she warned. "We can't."

"Why not?"

"Because we'd be a disaster together right now," she scoffed with a laugh. "And it'd destroy Tara and Kat would probably never forgive me. You're so wrapped up in everything right now with her that you're not even thinking straight. We still have to partner and I don't want this awkwardness between us. I did it with Sammy after we broke up First Year, and we both know that we dance better together than I did with him."

A weird sensation hit Christian all at once. It was as if everything he had done these past three years, from his arrest to coming to the school to befriending Sammy to finding Tara and then Kat, had led him right to this moment. "You're my best friend, you know?"

Abigail smiled down at the floor and then allowed herself to slowly lift her face to him. "I know, Christian," she said in response to the one truly genuine thing he had said to her. "It's not that I don't want to. It's just that we have..."

"We have to wait," he finished knowingly for her. "More time has to pass."

"I can't do that to Tara, and I can't do that to us," she murmured. "We need more time because I'm not going to be just another girl. When you kiss me, it's going to change everything you've ever known and it's going to turn your whole world upside down."

And three months later, in that very studio, it did, and neither of them were ever the same.


	20. Abigail & Ben

_How did we get here? How do we pretend everything's alright? And how do we stay here? Do we erase all the fear inside?"_  
_Tonight" - Seether_

"I'm pregnant." Abigail sat down on the edge of the tub, clutching the little applicator in her hand, and stared down at the screen in confusion. "That can't be right. We were careful."

Ben covered his mouth as he leaned in the doorway of the tiny bathroom she shared with Tara. They'd only been together for eight weeks, this rare fluke of a thing they'd fallen into after everyone else had paired up and she had looked really cute while dancing in Madame Butterfly. "We've been careful, this can't be right," he repeated. It really didn't make sense. After they had taken the step - a first for both of them - they had made sure that they used something every time. Abigail was even on the pill. It didn't make sense.

"Oh my god," she choked out, the tears starting to come immediately as she threw the plastic test to the floor. Ben didn't even think about where it had been as he picked it up off the ground and stared at the proof for himself. Sure enough, there was a stupid cartoon face smiling at him. He briefly thought about how they should have bought a different one at the chemist. "I can't do this, we can't do this! I don't want to do this! We can't be parents, Ben. You can't even take care of yourself. This is going to ruin my body. I won't be able to dance."

"Hey, calm down, babe," he said softly as he knelt by her side. Abigail recoiled into herself, snapping her hand back so that he couldn't reach out for her. "You haven't even been to a doctor. We'll make an appointment down at the clinic so that you can confirm it. It might just be a fluke."

Abigail scowled at him and shook her head. "It's not a mistake. You're my mistake," she spat angrily. It was Ben's turn to wince in response. "I should have never gotten mixed up with you. I should have known that something like this would happen. Well, I am not going to let it ruin my life. We can make an appointment to get it taken care of at the same clinic. It'll be gone before we know it, and we can go back to pretending that we barely know each other."

She didn't talk to him for three days after that, not until she had confirmed the pregnancy with her first appointment at the clinic and set another to have the procedure done. Ben offered to come with her, a request she promptly denied. Instead, she threw herself into classes and working out and basically avoiding anything and everything that reminded her of Ben or the baby. He mostly moped and watched her, praying that she would somehow change her mind.

Then, about fifteen minutes before she was supposed to leave for the clinic, she knocked on the door to the room that he shared with Christian. There were tears in her eyes again as she stood there, looking so tiny in his old blue hoodie with her pink dance bag over her shoulder. "I don't want to go alone," she finally said when he looked up from the anatomy homework he was only pretending to do. "Do you think, I don't know, can you come with me?"

Ben abandoned his textbook and grabbed his wallet before leading her down to the bus stop. They stood silently beside each other, her pretending to cry and him pretending not to notice, until the No. 6 showed up right on schedule to take them to the clinic. The waiting room was backed up when they got there, and he left her alone in the only empty chair while he went up to the counter to sign in. She was reading a six-month-old copy of some parenting magazine when he returned. When he spotted the article talking about pregnancy symptoms and she started to sob all over again, he eased the magazine out of her hand and shifted her out of the seat so that he could sit down and hold her.

"Armstrong," an older nurse announced from behind a thick glass window.

Abigail and Ben followed the matronly woman down the hallway and into an empty examination room. The sharp smell of sterilizer tickled his nose as he sat on the stool in the corner and Abigail changed into the ugly paper gown. Once she was sitting on the paper-covered table, he came over and stood by her side. She smiled at him almost gratefully when he took her hand. This was going to suck.

A nurse came in to take her vital signs and explain the procedure. She handed over some paperwork for Abigail to review and then sign. She didn't bother looking over it before scrawling her signature messily across the bottom. There were some details she'd rather not know. Ben was just returning the clipboard to the slot on the door when the doctor came in.

"Would you like him to leave?"

"No, maybe, he should stay," she said softly. She bit her bottom lip to keep herself from crying, but it was all in vain. "I mean, I would like him to stay."

The doctor went about setting everything up, the lengthy delay only making Ben that much more nervous and Abigail even more scared. It would only take a few minutes and then it would all be over. That is what Abigail kept thinking. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, this was her way out. And just as she was having that very thought and the doctor was preparing to start the procedure, she felt something jump in her stomach. She knew it was far too early for her to feel the baby, but that was her first reaction and it suddenly became very real. There was a baby in there, this whole life growing inside of her.

"Stop," she cried out suddenly. "We have to stop! You have to stop."

The doctor pressed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, are you sure?" Ben echoed as he looked down at her. "It's okay, Abigail. If this is what you want, you know I'll support you."

"And what about you? What do you want?" she asked rhetorically. Abigail shook her head and stood up, reaching for her clothes as she went. "This isn't what I want. I can't do this. I can't just kill it. I can't kill this baby, Ben. I can't kill our kid."

He smiled at her then, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. It wouldn't be easy but they would make it work. When their perfect little girl was born eight months later, they were both sure that it had all been worth it. Abigail lost most of Third Year but was able to repeat it once she was back in shape and while Ben danced with the company. She was accepted the next fall and the little family went on the road dancing all over Australia, New Zealand and eventually, the world.

* * *

An: For wittykittylizzie. Requests are welcome for pairings I haven't already written. Thanks!


	21. Kat & Abigail

_I only have to play the part, but that part is only part of me. Once in awhile, I let down my guard, but it's hard, afraid of what you'll see.  
"My Name" – Matthew Morrison_

**Age Six.**  
When her mother first suggested that Kat start attending dance classes when they were back in Australia, Kat had pretty much decided that she had already hated it before she got there. But since she insisted, Kat was forced to go to this ridiculously stuffy dance studio to stand in a line with other girls her age and pretend that she knew what she was doing. She was supposed to be some kind of legacy, but Kat didn't really like ballet all that much. It left her feeling isolated, particularly her entire view of the art was wrapped up in the focused dancers that toured with her parents' company.

However, despite that overwhelming need to hate it, Kat actually finds that she loves it upon first sight. There are a million little girls running around the bustling dance studio, and she thrives on the insanity of it right away. She was used to being surrounded by adults, but these were kids – girls – her own age. She's breathless with excitement fifteen minutes into the first class and begs her mom to keep her enrolled by the time the session is through. She even talks endlessly about this one girl, Abigail, who is already focused on things like her extension when Kat doesn't even know what that means. They're best friends instantly.

**Age Ten.**  
Kat is back from boarding school for the summer, happy to be back at home at her old studio and with her own friends. Her parents are somewhere abroad (Paris maybe or Tokyo) but Ethan is around, and they're staying behind in Sydney with their nanny because their parents want them to both of focus on dance. Kat shows up at Abigail's house before she even settles into her own, and the two hug each other for a good three minutes before they bound downstairs to the little studio Abigail's dad set up for her in the basement.

Looking back, it's the last time that Kat really thinks that dance is fun. It was still freeing then, not all regimented with private lessons and expensive choreographers and ridiculously lavish costumes that cost a fortune. Abigail is still as focused as ever, but she is still sweet. She helps Kat work on her turns and the leaps that she was just starting to master. Kat knows that her best friend is a much better dancer than her because of all her practice, but she also knows that Abigail secretly hates that Kat is able to grasp everything so easily because of her raw natural talent. It doesn't matter that summer, and Kat spends the next three years wishing they could go back to that.

**Age Thirteen.**  
The worst thing about the endless stream of boarding schools all over the world seems to be that there are never any boys at them. Her parents think a girl like Kat is better left with classmates of her own gender, which pretty much only makes her want to see boys that much more. The only time she really gets to be around any of them is when they're partnered for ballet classes, but with her mother constantly looking over her shoulder, even that's not as fun as it should be. Kat's secretly ecstatic when her mom gets another starring role that sends her to Moscow while she stays behind with her father and Ethan in Berlin until his current show closed.

Kat misses Abigail sometimes but knows that the stuck-up brunette will never talk to her now. Abigail got really serious about dancing, even more than before, when Kat beat her out for the lead role in a stupid recital piece three summers ago. And then Kat had let Andrew Hamilton hold her hand at the movies a year later and had quit talking to her altogether. Kat hadn't even known that her friend had liked the shy redhead from their modern class or she wouldn't have agreed to hang out with him. How was she supposed to know? She had only been eleven.

**Age Sixteen.**  
Kat is at the Academy and for the first time in a long time, she loves dancing again. She has made some amazing friends there and she loves having Ethan here and Sydney is really an amazing city. Even the classes aren't so bad, though she could do without all the rules and the rigorous schedules. She misses normal teenage things like dating and parties, but they don't seem so bad when she's on the couch in the lounge with everyone just watching films or music videos.

She has gotten a lot out being there, but the thing that surprises her most is that she has gotten Abigail back again. The petite brunette is still as determined as ever but after Kat loses Tara as her best friend, she is surprisingly there to help Kat pick up the pieces. They end up roommates and it's still not perfect, but it works for the two of them. No one else might ever understand, but that year, Kat and Abigail get each other. Finding their friendship is like finding a piece of them that had been missing for so long.

**Age Twenty-Two.**  
What used to be two best friends is now three girls who are united by their love of ballet and each other. Tara, Kat and Abigail are as close as friends could be, and Kat proudly calls both of them her sisters. They've toured together at different times, Abigail joining Kat in Paris for a guest role as a featured performer and Kat heading to Moscow to dance in the chorus in some complicated piece her father has choreographed that just happens to also feature Tara. Their phone bills are ridiculously high, and Abigail often complains about the struggle it puts on her tight budget, but they also know that it's the one line item that she considers to be most worth it.

And now, Abigail is about to become her sister officially in just under an hour and Kat really couldn't be happier about it. Ethan has been a nervous wreck all week about the wedding but Abigail as focused on her impending marriage as she has been on ballet for all these years. Tara heads out to line up with one of Abigail's cousin for the procession, leaving the two of them behind – the bride and her maid of honor. Kat tells her that she looks beautiful in her white dress and Abigail brushes away tears as she returns the compliment. Later on, when they're dancing together in the middle of the reception hall, Kat thinks that they have finally come full circle. Their friendship had started with a dance and now their sisterhood would as well.

* * *

_For Random. Requests for solos/pairings/trios/groups I haven't featured are welcome._


	22. Grace & Tara

_So I look in your direction, but you pay me no attention. And you know how much I need you but you never even see me._  
_"Shiver" - Coldplay_

Grace had always just known that she was different. Maybe it was why she tried to so hard to push people away. There were parts of her that didn't think it was okay to feel the way that she did, but the biggest part of her knew that it was natural and that she couldn't help. It was still a burden, though, carrying the secret. It explained why she did a lot of what she did.

When she had first come to the Academy, she had admired Abigail instantly. However, when the resident Ice Queen had frozen her out after that whole stupid kiss with Ethan thing, Grace had turned her sights on building a friendship with Tara. She had liked the country girl straight away, and the friendship had only deepened after things with Kat had blown up.

With a childhood like hers, Grace appreciated when things were just hers. That's why she was so invested in her relationship with Tara. What she didn't want to admit, what she wasn't ready to see, is that her feelings ran much deeper than that. It's only after her supposed best friend started to make up with Kat that Grace realized what was really going on. That's why she started to pull all of those stupid stints to keep the lanky dancer on her side. She didn't want to share Tara with anyone else.

Of course, like she always does, Grace managed to blow up her life when something good was happening to her. She lost her spot at the Grand Prixe and ended up back in London, much to the chagrin of her father and his new family. Grace worked her ass off getting a spot with the British national team in hopes of making amends with Lucy and her old friends at the Academy. She pretended that she didn't care when she saw Tara and the others again, but there was a distinct ache in her heart when she found herself on the outside looking in. It only got worse after Sammy died and the group pulled tighter together.

She waited until Third Year to finally approach Tara and truly apologize for everything she had done the year before. She never told her that she had feelings for her, only asked for her forgiveness and begged for a second chance at friendship. She wasn't really surprised when Tara accepted and tried to incorporate her in the other group activities. There was a reason she had been attracted to her in the first place. Tara really was that nice of a girl.

Grace didn't find the courage to officially come out until after she had left the Academy. She was dancing in a trio back in London and had fallen for one of the beautiful costume assistants. Paige makes her want to be a better person like another girl did not so long ago. Tara is the first person from the Academy that Grace calls when she decides to tell people that she likes girls. Tara accepts her right away, and Grace is really happy that she can once again call the girl her best friend.

* * *

_For Mello. Same request rules apply._


	23. Sammy & Abigail & Kat

_Don't take offense. Better make amends. Rip it all to shreds and let it go._  
_"When I Grow Up" - Garbage_

Jealousy was an ugly emotion, and right now, the two most important people in Sammy's life were entirely wrapped up in it. The two of them had been going at it for weeks, trading barbs and insults like manners were going out of style. He had tried his best to play referee, but he was getting really tired of it. He had enough on his plate without worrying about the two of them constantly putting him in the middle of their drama.

"You told me that you would help me with my choreography," Abigail demanded, her arms crossed in front of her like a defiant child. "I don't know how you expect me to see you as a legitimate boyfriend if you can't even keep your promises to me."

Sam pushed down his urge to roll his eyes. "I said that I would help you and I'm going to," he reassured her. "But we don't have plans until three, and I told Kat that I would help her with her anatomy homework right now."

"Yeah, so scram, Abigail," Kat snapped hotly as she threw down her hot pink highlighter. He knew that his best friend was just welcoming the fight as a distraction because she hated schoolwork. "He can't play right now. I had him first."

"Seriously?" Abigail asked rhetorically as she arched her eyebrow. She looked from her enemy to her boyfriend. "You're choosing this, this juvenile, over spending time with me?"

"Now who's acting like a brat?" Kat shot back.

"Both of you actually," Sammy said as he slammed the book shut. He stood up, grabbed his bag and pushed his glasses up over the bridge of his nose. "You've been fighting like children for days, and I'm fed up with it. Until the two of you can figure this out and get along without constantly putting me in the middle, I am not going to help either one of you."

"But you promised!" the two girls exclaimed in unison.

"Yeah, well, I take it back then," he grumbled. "I'm going to go find Christian and pretend that my girlfriend and my best friend don't hate each other because I honestly can't take it anymore. Find me when you get this worked out."

"Great, now look what you've done!"

"What I've done?" Kat echoed. "You're the one who interrupted us with some lame excuse about needing his help. You just can't stand that Sammy cares about me and that we're friends. You want him all to yourself, but I have one thing to tell you, Abigail: he was my best friend first. He's not just going to come running whenever you snap your fingers."

"You're just jealous that I'm with Sammy and that you're alone," Abigail said cruelly. "Your brother is gone and Christian is with Tara and you're stuck by yourself. It must be awfully lonely when everyone else is paired up."

Kat laughed in Abigail's face. "I'm hardly alone when I spend half my time with your boyfriend, now am I?"

"He's my boyfriend!"

"He's my best friend!"

"What is your problem?"

"What's my problem?" Kat laughed. "Your insecurity is not my problem. Are you really so dense, Abigail? Sammy obviously loves you. You have absolutely nothing to worry about, so you can quit staking your claim. Everyone gets it, he's yours."

Abigail was silent for a beat. "He loves me?"

Kat couldn't help but smile at the petite brunette's awe. She didn't know that Sammy hadn't said the words to her yet. He hadn't even admitted his feeling to Kat, she just knew that he loved Abigail. "Of course, dummy," she laughed. "Do you think he would put up with our crazy if he didn't? He loves both of us but just in very, very different ways."

"Well, I guess there is room for both of us in his life," she pondered. Truthfully, a part of her suddenly didn't care about competing with Kat anymore since she knew he loved her. "I guess we could try to get along."

"This doesn't make us friends."

"Oh, god, no," Abigail agreed. "Absolutely not." She still smiled despite herself as she looked over at Kat, not at all surprised to see the girl grinning at her. "One of us should probably go find him and apologize."

"You go ahead," Kat offered as she pulled her book into her lap. "Just tell him that I'll catch up with him later."

Jealousy was still an ugly thing, but the two most important people in Sammy's life managed to find a compromise that day. It wasn't always going to be easy and the two of them would never really be friends like they had been before, but they were able to peacefully coexist for the most part for his benefit. They got better at keeping him out of the middle of their fights, choosing instead to make Tara play their intermediary. They both decided that they loved him too much to put him through any more of that.

* * *

_For wittykittylizzie. Standard request rules apply._


	24. Tara & Ethan & Abigail

_If you should ever tire or if you should require a simple, sudden twist of fate, don't hide away. There's something to be said for pushing through.  
"Deadlines and Commitments" - The Killers_

When Ethan first started really getting into choreography, he had struggled to find inspiration that would drive him to create these masterpieces like his father. He not only knew how important it was that the muses find you but also how cruel they could be. His father's attention had shifted as easily as the wind, resulting in a string of affairs sprinkled amongst his two marriages. Ethan didn't want to be like his father on a personal level, but his professional career certainly left something to emulate.

And that's how he ended up transfixed by the simplicity of Tara with that ribbon during her first year at the academy. It was that childlike approach to dancing, the simplicity of just doing it because you loved it, that made her attractive to him. It didn't hurt that she worshipped him, that she saw something there that made him special. He liked the world through Tara's eyes. It was a beautiful place to be.

They actually made a pretty amazing team when they were in sync. She ended up having a surprising grace and a raw natural talent that complimented his style of choreography. She was willing to put in the long hours to get the moves right and seemed to care as much as he did. There was something easy about working with her. It reminded him a lot of watching his own father work with Natasha. He'd even allowed himself to imagine what it would be like to create a piece especially for her to open in Paris or Moscow. And then hormones had reared their ugly head and a stupid kiss with Christian had pretty much ruined any chance of that ever happening.

Abigail had been an entirely different type of dancer. She was about precision and focus. Her movements were strong and powerful, perfected by hours of training, conditioning and practice. She danced not just because she loved it but because she was good at it. She'd built her entire life around ballet, and she would stop at nothing to have the future she'd always wanted.

Sure, her priorities had shifted some during that second year in Sydney, but it only made her a better dancer. It gave her a renewed passion and an emotional edge that made her seem warmer and more genuine. He looked forward to creating pieces with her in mind because she was able to easily showcase his talent. He'd been scared of losing that when he left for Barcelona, and no one knew that he'd actually cried a little in the cab after leaving her. He hated the circumstances that had brought her back to him and to Spain, but he loved what the holidays had given them.

Now, he was back in Sydney for their last year at the academy and his first year as an instructor with the school on his own. His father was gone to London to guest with their ballet, and Ethan had been given his prime placement to choreograph performances of his own. It had been a hard choice for him that first audition to pick Tara, but he was so proud of Abigail when she had held her head high to congratulate her closest competitor. He had prepared himself for a fight afterward when he was walking her back to the dorms, but she had only kissed him sweetly at the door and promised to see him that evening for dinner.

It's familiar working closely with Tara as a soloist, and both of them are exhausted from the long hours they put in at the studio alone. She's gotten so much better than the first time they worked together, and his first major original piece is already generating buzz thanks to the flashy posters the school had plastered all over the city. Abigail is supportive but he knows that the attention is starting to play on her insecurities at least a little. When he has to cancel dinner again for the third time in a week, she finally breaks down in tears and loses it.

"I am okay coming in second to dance and to your work. I understand how important this is to you, E," she told him tearfully, covering her face in embarrassment from the tears. "But I am not okay with being second to her. I just want to see my boyfriend for a few hours without having to talk about Tara or watch you leave to go back to the studio with her."

Ethan sat down on the seawall beside her, wrapping his arm around her slender shoulder. "Oh, Abs, you're not second to anything or anyone," he murmured softly, leaning over to kiss the top of her head. "I know I've been busy, but nothing is as important to me than you. You're my girl. I'm sorry that I haven't been great at showing that to you."

She knows that he tries hard for the next few weeks until the show opens, and he appreciates that she doesn't complain or make him feel guilty when rehearsals start to run long. She brings coffee and pitches in to help with whatever needs to be done back stage and even steps into a minor role in the chorus with Kat when a bout of mono takes down two of his dancers. She also basically stops sleeping at the dorms altogether and is a regular fixture in his bed. She says it's because that's the only time she sees him, but they both know she just sleeps better with him than without him.

That first piece leads to a second, one that will be part of a much bigger performance with the Australian Ballet. All of the girls in second and third years try out, and he has a panel of teachers from the academy assist him in casting to even out his bias. He is thrilled when they unanimously select Abigail to be the lead in his reimagining of "Giselle." She cries where her name is announce to the room of dancers and Tara is the first one to congratulate her this go around.

"You picked me because I was right for the role, right?"

Ethan nodded as he kissed her forehead once the studio was empty. "It came down to you, Tara and that girl, Alice. I told them that I couldn't be part of the final decision. They chose you unanimously."

Abigail danced beautifully in the piece and ended up with an early offer from the Australian Ballet. They celebrated that night with a bottle of champagne and a picnic on the beach, staying as far away from the cast party as they could manage. The entire week was sold out and the newspaper reviews raved about their talents. Life was definitely good.

There was one more major dance before she completed her final year at the Academy, and Ethan wrote the ballet with both of them as featured soloists. It would be his last for the school as he had also accepted a position with the company. It was on the terms he had wanted when he had first gotten a contract three years ago. They would both dance and he would have the option of creating dances for the company.

It took many hours and a lot of work, but when Tara and Abigail opened to a packed crowd along with Christian and Ben, Ethan had never been more proud of his girls. Tara looked every bit the dreamer that she was, playing well of the core strength and natural exuberance of Ben. Christian was the dream partner for Abigail and the two of them danced together beautifully. He would be coming to the Australian Ballet with them, having already been partnered permanently with Abigail.

There would be other ballerinas like Tara that would grab Ethan's attention. He would see something in them that struck inspiration, and if only briefly, the muses would lead him in their direction. His attention would dwell only long enough to create his piece and then, it was still purely professional. He'd eventually feel that the urge had been fulfilled and would catch the way Abigail's turnout on her fouette was crazy sexy and a new ballet solo would be born. It only grew stronger when she was partnered with him for a Carmen piece while Christian was out with the flu. Dancing with her like that, working her body and learning how it felt to be her foundation, gave his choreography for Abigail a whole new edge. The Sydney Morning Herald described that chemistry, the one that had brought them together and would eventually lead to a marriage and two children, as something not to miss.

In fact, she made sure that he would never forget that they had described them as "pure magic."

* * *

_Author's note: For ailes, a faithful reader and reviewer. Requests welcome._


	25. Tara & Christian II

_And from the stage I can tell that she can't let go and she can't relax. And just before she hangs her head to cry, I sing to her a lullaby._

_"Lullaby" - Shawn Mullins_

Tara stood alone in the auditorium, staring out at the empty sea of seats. It was her first time being back at the Academy full time as a student after losing Sammy. There had been the Prixe right before the holidays and then a nice long summer break where she and Kat did everything but dance at the farm. She hadn't let herself even think about ballet after watching Grace get those roses on stage. She hadn't let herself think about a lot of things since then.

It had been radio silence from Christian all summer long. Kat had tried to talk to her about it, but Tara refused to acknowledge that he even existed. If he cared, he would have called, she insisted. It didn't matter really, anyhow, they were only supposed to be friends. She had been with Ben when they had gone on break, though that hadn't lasted more than a few weeks when she hadn't put much effort into keeping in touch and he met a pretty blonde in his tap class.

However, now she was back in Sydney, looking down the short end of her last year at the Academy. She already missed the safety net of being a student there, the way that the shelter of the place kept the rest of the real world at bay. It was hard to think how it would soon be over and they'd all be thrown out into the cruel reality that the competitive ballet world would bring. She was both terrified of and thrilled by the prospect of going pro.

With a deep breath, Tara started to slowly work through her Prixe routine automatically. Every movement from The Red Shoes was fluid and artistic, just as natural as it had ever been. She might have been a little out of practice, but muscle memory kicked in easily and brought the complex piece to fruition. When she pulled out of the fallen heap on the wooden floor, she was surprised to hear applause at the back of the theater.

"Just as beautiful as always, Webster," Christian announced as he came toward the front of the stage. Tara stood up and smoothed down her sheer skirt. "I didn't know you were already back."

"I could say the same," she smiled nervously. She paced back and forth for a moment before sitting down to perch on the edge of the stage. Christian jumped up beside her, leaning close so that their legs were pressed together. "How was your trip? I thought you might call, but no one heard from you all summer."

"Needed to get out of Sydney and away from everything, spendf some time with my dad," he shrugged. He probably thought that was sufficient explanation, and Tara knew him well enough to know that was all she was going to get. "I'm back now, just getting settled in. Ben and I are in the same room. He said you guys broke up. Everything okay?"

Tara smiled softly. "Ben is a great guy, but I think we're better off as friends," she replied. "We're fine. We've already spoken since we've been back and agreed to be partners again this year."

"How very mature of you, Training Bra," he teased as he nudged her with his elbow. He suddenly turned a little more serious. "I thought about you a lot this summer, you know? I would see something beautiful and think how much you would love it. I wanted to call, probably picked up the phone a million times, but I didn't want things to be complicated. Just for a few months, I wanted everything between us to be simple."

She couldn't help but think that even now, just sitting here and talking with him, was complicated. That's just how they were together. It wasn't always a bead thing either, just sort of how it was. "Well, I'm glad you had a good time with your dad, and I'm glad you're back. We missed you."

"We missed you?"

"I missed you," she corrected. "A lot."

"Good. You win a prize then," he grinned before reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a necklace, just this small sliver of amber on a long silver chain. "I saw it and thought of you. The color reminds me of the sunset in the back fields out on the farm."

Tara fingered the smooth stone delicately. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah," he agreed, his eyes locking with hers, "it is."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Kat came crashing through the door with Ollie behind her. Ben showed up a few minutes later, and Abigail and Ethan made their grand entrance not long after. Tara and Christian soon got swept up in the reunions, leaving the rest of their conversation up in the air. Tara wasn't sure what any of it meant, his words or the necklace or the familiar twist of emotion in her stomach, but she knew that it meant it was definitely going to be an interesting year.

* * *

_I have had a few requests for another Christian/Tara tale. I won't be doing a third installment but wanted to do this one as a thanks to my fans. _


	26. Ben & Tara II

_"'Cause, Blue Eyes, you are all that I need. 'Cause, Blue eyes, you're the sweet to my mean."_  
_"Blue Eyes" - Cary Brothers_

"She has your eyes."

Tara looked down at the little bundle of fuzzy pink sleeping in her arms and thought it was impossible to feel more love than she felt in that second. "She's perfect, Ben," she whispered back in amazement. They were both in awe of their daughter. "Looking at her, I would swear that anything is possible. She could be prime minister or footballer or a doctor or a singer."

"Or a prima ballerina like her mommy," he murmured affectionately, reaching down unnecesarily to rearrange Samantha's blanked around her tiny shoulders. "I had no idea it would be this good. Any of it, when you told me that we were going to have a baby, I couldn't have imagined how awesome it'd feel."

She couldn't help but smile up at her husband in agreement. Two years into marriage had given them their happiest day together yet, all thanks to a plastic applicator with a plus sign. "I know what you mean," she replied softly. "I think about it all the time. When we first started out all those years ago, you were just some goofy boy in my dance classes. And now, you're my most important person in the world."

"Second most," he corrected gently. "I think she has my nose. And my fingers, definitely my fingers. She's going to have your hair. I hope she has your smile."

"I hope she has your feet," Tara added with a grin. She'd always been plagued by her feet and how they'd negatively impacted her natural turnout. "And I hope she has your love for life, your eternal optimism and way of always seeing the best in people."

"Well, I hope little Sam here has your way of seeing the world, the way you can still believe in magic and whimsy, even after everything," he declared. "She's going to be all the best of us, T. Our girl, she's gonna change the world."

Tara looked back down at her daughter and couldn't help but smile sadly. All of their friends had visited when she'd been born three days ago. Ethan and Abigail had flown in from Moscow, Kat had come from New York and Christian and his new wife had made the trip from Vienna. Ollie and Grace had flown in from Paris and London respectively. Even Ms. Rayne had managed to make it by the hospital to visit two of her favorite ex-students. However, even between all the friends and family that had filled her hospital room, Tara had known that there was always one missing. She still missed him every day.

"I hope that she has the pure love of dance from her namesake," Tara decided aloud. "Or whatever she decides that she wants to do with her life, I hope that she has the same passion that Sammy did."

"You're missing him, huh?"

"He would have loved being an uncle."

Ben rested one hand on her shoulder and then the other on the blanket their daughter was wrapped in. "She gets to have him as a guardian angel instead, and I think that's still a pretty good deal," he told her. He would have gladly given that up to have Sammy back with them as well, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. Instead, he was going to just have to compromise with God and take what they had been given. "And I think he would have liked that we picked Ollie and Kat to be the godparents. They'll make sure that Sam knows all about him."

"Oh, Benster, so sappy and sentimental now that you're a daddy," she teased him, turning her head slightly to meet his lips with a brief kiss. She gazed back down at their daughter and smiled again. "We did good."

And when Ben slipped behind her in the chair a moment later and wrapped his arms around his family, Tara learned that it was possible to feel more love than that moment. It was a lesson she'd continue to learn a million times over.


	27. Kat & Ben & Tara

_So here we are together tonight, I hope you're having the time of your life. Let's start again, one step at a time. We could have something and I want to try if you want to try._  
_"Time of Your Life" - Alex Day_

It had been ten years since they had left the Academy, ten years since they had last seen each other. Life had sent them in very different directions and they had just sort of lost touch along the way as old friends do. She kept up with them through updates from other people they both knew, and they heard the occasional tidbit here and there. Her busy schedule had kept her from the reunion a few years ago that Abigail and Christian had organized a few months after she'd had the baby and they'd settled back down with the Australian Ballet in Sydney. They hadn't managed to make it to New York with the others to see her make her feature debut. It used to make her sad but not anymore. It was simply how their lives had worked out.

However, now Tara was back in Sydney to attend the funeral for Ms. Raine. There were people dressed in black milling outside of the cathedral when her town car pulled up, and she could see Ethan with his wife waiting along with Abigail and Christian. She climbed out of the car and was just about to call out to her old friends when she saw them. Tara hadn't laid eyes on Kat and Ben since their last day at the Academy, that terrible, awful, fated Saturday when Ben admitted that he had been cheating on her for two months and Kat quietly told her that they were getting married in four weeks.

Looking back, she supposed that she should have seen it. After all this time, she could honestly say that she didn't really blame Ben. She had been so wrapped up in her dancing, so wrapped up in getting that contract, that she had barely noticed when he got the test results back that told him that he had cancer again. The old her would have been there for him, but the competitive dancer that emerged those few months couldn't be bothered. She'd had a singular focus then, and Kat had stepped in to pick up the pieces that she should have glued back together.

"Hello, Tara," Kat said warmly as she walked up. The lithe blonde had a small girl on her hip, and Ben was holding the hand of a slightly older boy that was his spitting image. "Abs said that you would probably be here. It's really good to see you."

Tara smiled at them uncomfortably but nodded politely nonetheless. "I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get a flight in time again, but I didn't want to miss it," she replied softly, looking at Christian and then Ethan. She was doing whatever she could to avoid the eye line of her former best friend and ex-boyfriend. "Ms. Raine was a special woman. She meant a great deal to me."

"To all of us," Abigail agreed as she looped her arm through Christian's. He patted her fingers affectionately. "I hope you will join us for lunch afterward. Ollie is around here somewhere, and Grace is with the family. It'll be nice for all of us to catch up."

Time and motherhood had been kind to Abigail, making her a much more caring and patient woman. She was still dancing with the Australian Ballet along side her partner in life and on the stage, Christian. They'd married three years after they had all left the Academy when months of touring had left them with no one else to talk about each other. Somewhere between London and Rio, he had decided that he loved the fierce little brunette and hadn't relented until she had agreed to be his in Beijing. Tara had missed their wedding as well when she had been dancing in the chorus of Carmen.

The service was long and terribly Catholic and Tara had a hard time focusing on the tradition of it all. Kat wept openly and loudly, Ben's arm wrapped around her tightly in comfort. The woman had become a surrogate mother to Kat over the years, and her children had taken to calling her Grandma Lucy. Abigail told her as much afterward when they had already made their way through the receiving line and Kat had been swept up in the embrace of several dark-haired Raines. It's then that Ben finally decided to make an appearance apart from his wife and children.

"So how's life treating you, Webster?"

"I can't complain, Ben," she smiled softly. She watched him watching his children, who were currently chasing their Uncle Ethan around on the grassy knoll. "I love New York, it's become home. Being with the company is hectic and exhausting and amazing."

"Everything you ever wanted," he nodded with a small grin.

"And how are you?"

"I can't complain," he echoed. He looked over at his son and daughter again. "Aurora is this ball of energy, so much like Kat that it's hard to separate them sometimes. Brady is a lot like me, goofy and a total people pleaser. I love being a husband and father. It suits me even more than dancing did."

"So you're not...?"

"I teach at the Academy, have for going on six years now ever since Kat had Brady. I wasn't sure I'd get to dance again after, well, you know...Anyhow, I love it," he shrugged happily. "Kat is still with the Australian Ballet, doing choreography and costumes. She's helping them start a new program for kids, and Aurora can't wait to get in a tutu."

"Daddy, come here!" Aurora called out then just as Kat hollered, "Husband, I need you!"

"Excuse me," he chuckled before jogging down the hill to meet where Kat was leaning against Ethan, talking down to their children. He lifted Aurora easily onto his shoulders while Brady tucked his little hand into Ethan's. The three adults came back up to meet Tara. "I think we should formally introduce you. Aurora, Brady, this is Tara."

"I know you! You used to be friends with Mommy and Daddy when they went to school!" Aurora said knowingly. Brady just silently gazed up at her. "Mommy has a picture of you and Auntie Abby on desk."

"She does?" Tara asked, her eyes darting up to meet Kat's blue orbs.

"Ben, honey, why don't you and Ethan take the kids to see Ollie and Grace? They haven't seen them yet, and I know Ollie was dying to see them," Kat proclaimed. Once they were gone, Kat led her over to a bench so they could talk privately. "I thought the two of us should talk a little before we get around everyone else."

Tara crossed her long legs and smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from her designer black dress. "I didn't even know you had a child, let alone two kids," she said sadly. "How did that happen? I never thought I wouldn't know every detail of your life and suddenly ten years have passed."

"We both know what happened."

"I should have been there for him."

"Maybe, but it doesn't seem to matter anymore, you know?" Kat said, lifting one shoulder in a half shrug. "Ben's healthy and we're happy, T, so happy. This family, our marriage, it's everything to me. I should probably actually thank you. Besides, we hurt you too." She paused a beat. "And I'd like to think, I truly hope, that you're happy in New York too. You always just wanted to dance and now you get to do it every night for thousands of people."

"Life has a way of working out, huh?"

Kat looked over at her kids playing with her brother and husband and couldn't help but smile brilliantly. She was still sad inside over losing her mentor, but having Tara there kind of felt like Lucy's final act. She had always wanted the two of them to reconcile, telling her that friends like that didn't come along every day. Kat loved Abigail dearly, but part of her heart was always missing Tara.

"I've missed you," Kat announced quietly. "For so long, T, I wanted to pick up the phone..."

"I know," Tara said tearfully, moving closer on the bench so she could wrap her arms around her old friend. "It shouldn't have taken this to get us here."

"So let's do better."

"We will," she promised. "You're not getting rid of me this time."

Nearly exactly one year later, Tara returned to that same cathedral in Sydney for a much happier occasion. She stood at the front of the pulpit beside Ollie as Tara and Ben's third child was baptized. The tiny little brunette had her mother's big blue eyes and her father's crooked smile. Holding her goddaughter in her arms, Tara couldn't help but think that maybe it was time to come home again. She had already missed out on so much, and she didn't want to miss seeing this beautiful little girl named Lucy grow up.

* * *

_For the ever-faithful ailes._


	28. Ethan & Abigail & Sammy

_You hold out your hand. I go right back to the beginning. The world keeps turning always through it all. You're still there to catch me, I'm still learning how to fall. That's fathers and daughters, daughters and fathers. We grow up and discover, no one ever loves each other like fathers and daughters._  
_"Fathers and Daughters" - Kristin Chenoweth_

"Mommy, tell me the story again."

Abigail looked down at the five-year-old girl in her lap and smiled affectionately, reaching up to ruffle her chestnut curls adoringly. "Are you sure? You must have heard it a thousand times by now. Wouldn't you rather hear a different one?"

"No, you have to tell this one, Mommy," the girl insisted. "It's my favorite one."

"Alright, settle in," Abigail told her, reaching behind her for the blanket so she could wrap it around both of them. Her daughter pressed the side of her head to her mother's chest and fisted the loose material of her oversized sweater in her little hand. Abigail closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the moment because she knew that the time she had left to hold her daughter like this was fleeting. "Once upon a time, there was a ballerina who loved a boy who was just a little odd."

The little girl looked up at her then. "What was her name? What was his?"

"You know that her name was Abby and that his name was Sammy," Abigail reminded her with a gentle smile. "The two of them loved each other very much, and then one day, Sammy decided that he needed to go off on an adventure of his own. Abby was very sad for a long time because she missed Sammy, but then, they started to be friends again."

"And then what happened?" she prodded. "Did they fall in love again?"

"Well, the thing was that Abby and Sammy never stopped loving each other. The way that they loved each other just changed a little," Abigail explained. "Sammy had lots of new friends to play with, and Abby found a few of her own. Her favorite friend was a handsome dancer named Ethan. He was the only other boy besides Sammy that had ever made her feel special."

"How did he do that?"

"Because he looked at her like she was the most special and beautiful and talented ballerina in all the world," Abigail answered. "But then Ethan had to go away too, to a far off place called Barcelona so that he could help other ballerinas. When he went away, Abby was very sad, and Sammy helped her feel better. One day, right before he was going to dance in a very important competition, he kissed Abby. It was like the world was suddenly a very different place."

This was always her favorite part. "And then what, Mommy?"

"Then Abby and Sammy spent one very special night together and they made a beautiful little princess. She was the prettiest thing that the world had ever seen," Abigail told her. "But Abby got sad because Sammy had to go away again and she knew that he was never going to be able to come back again."

"Did she cry?"

"Abby cried a lot," Abigail admitted. "She cried and cried until she didn't think she had any more tears left to cry. But one day, right before she found out that the beautiful little princess was growing in her tummy, Ethan came back to see her. He told her that she was beautiful and special, and Abby knew that she loved Ethan very much. He took her away with him to Barcelona, and when he found out about the princess, he promised Abby that he would love the little princess as his own."

"And that's how you and Daddy ended up married, right?"

Abigail looked toward the doorway where her husband of six years was leaning against the wooden frame. He winked and smiled at her as he came into the living room to perch on the arm of their chair. "Yes, that is how your Mommy and I ended up living happily ever after with our little princess," he answered for Abigail. "Seven months after we were married, our little princess, you, came into this world."

"And you named me Isadora after my other daddy, right?"

A familiar sadness swelled in Abigail as she looked down at her daughter. "Yep, we named you Izzy after Sammy's middle name," she retorted. Izzy always loved that, how she had this father who would always be perfect because he couldn't be here and another father who wasn't always perfect because he could be there. "Your dad's middle name was Isador."

"I know that, Mommy," Izzy reminded her with a wise grin. "Do you think my other daddy would have liked me?"

"Oh, Izzy," Ethan exhaled, reaching down to hold his daughter's little hand. "Your daddy would have absolutely adored you."

"Duh, Daddy," she giggled just as the doorbell rang. She bounded off the couch, and Abigail had to smile to herself as she heard her scamper toward the door. "Auntie Kat is here, Auntie Kat is here!"

Ethan slid down into the chair and wrapped his arm around his wife. There were moments like this where they were both distinctly aware that he was sort of living another man's life and they couldn't help but be a little sad about it. However, then Abigail leaned up and kissed him soundly and he knew that kiss was meant solely for him. They would always miss Sammy, but his spirit would live on in the daughter that all three of them shared. It would live on in Isadora.

* * *

_For bon voyage. I am now accepting requests for a second round of one-shots for a pairing/trio/group or an original that I haven't done yet. The only exceptions are ones that I have already written for twice, Christian/Tara and Ben/Tara. _


	29. Sammy & Abigail & Christian

_I'd take another chance, take a fall take a shot for you. I need you like a heart needs a beat but it's nothin' new._  
_"Apologize" - OneRepublic_

"I don't know who to choose." Abigail hugged the mug between her palms, more content to hold the coffee than to actually sip it. Kat looked at her sadly, shrugging her shoulders, because from where she sat, either choice broke someone's heart. Tara wasn't much more help either. She only twisted the sterling silver bracelet on her delicate wrist, a gift from Ben on her eighteenth birthday. "You guys are supposed to help me. Isn't that the whole point of this having girl friends and sharing business?"

Kat held her hands up in front of her defensively. "Don't look at me. I don't have any business giving anyone romantic advice," she reminded her friend. "The longest relationship I had was with one of the potential objects of your affection, and the other happens to be my best friend."

"Well, I have been in a very loving and committed relationship for two years," Tara spoke up. "And even I have no clue what you should do."

"This was way easier when it was happening to you," Abigail said bitterly to Tara. "I thought you were silly and boy crazy for getting mixed up with two boys. And now here I am, stuck in the same position. What the hell happened to me?"

"Christian happened," Kat said. "Trust us, we've been there."

Abigail trailed her fingers through her long hair absently. "It was fine, we were perfectly good at being friends and partners. And then he had to smile at me..."

"That smile is definitely trouble," Tara agreed.

"Of course, that just had to coincide with Sammy deciding that he was suddenly in love with me again. We made it through the last two years at the Academy with just that minor hiccup before the Prixe where we managed to be friends. What changed?"

"Competition," Kat pointed out. "You two had been dancing around each other, just on the verge of being together again, when Christian made his intentions know. There's nothing like the potential of losing out to push a man to make a grand declaration of love."

"I care about both of them."

"Yeah," Tara replied, "but who do you love?"

Abigail considered the question for a moment. Sammy was sweet and caring, everything a girl could want in a boyfriend. His attention could also be fleeting, however, and she couldn't help but worry a little that he'd wake up one day and decide that he liked boys again. Christian, oh, Christian. He was mysterious and fun, and he made her feel sexy in a way that she never had. He also had a whole bunch of baggage and wasn't exactly great at letting people in. With someone with walls as high as Abigail, she couldn't help but think that kind of combination could be pretty counterproductive to a healthy relationship.

"I like them both for very different reasons."

"That's not what she asked, Abs," Kat replied. "She asked who you love."

"How do I answer that?"

"Honestly," Tara said, "from the heart."

She knew then that it all came down to one moment. It was a couple weeks ago when she had gotten sick and he had done the only thing she really wanted when she was sick. She didn't want soup or sappy movies or a back rub. She just wanted a dark, quiet place to sleep for twenty hours without anyone bothering her. When everyone else, including her other paramour, had insisted on pushing, he had understood the need to just give her space.

"Christian," she answered finally. "Christian has my heart."

Tara squealed while Kat couldn't help but cover her mouth. "Sammy is going to be crushed."

"Maybe you could help put his heart back together," Tara suggested. "It would be so great if all six of us were paired off."

Kat glared at her hopelessly romantic friend. "So not gonna happen, T," she replied before looking over at Abigail. "But I'll give him a shoulder to cry on. Don't worry, Abs, I got your back."

Abigail didn't say anything. She simply hugged both girls before grabbing her clutch off the table and bounding out the door. She ran the entire sixteen blocks in heels to get to him. She had been mulling this over for weeks, but now that she had finally chosen, it was like she couldn't wait another second to tell him. Christian was outside on that stupid skateboard when she finally made it back to the dorm. She grabbed his wrist, kicked his board to the side and laid a long kiss on him.

"I choose you, Christian," she whispered. "I choose you."

* * *

_For Random, a sort of double request fill by combining Christian/Abigail and Sammy/Abigail._


	30. Abigail & Ethan II

_I'm a little bit sheltered. I'm a little bit scared. I'm a little bit nervous I'm goin' nowhere._  
_"Believer" - American Authors_

Abigail knew all about expectations. She knew what it was like to have your entire day scheduled down to the minute, let alone the next year and the decade after that. She knew what it was like to stand in a room and know that you are the best and how hard it was to be on that high of a pedestal because it only gave you further to fall. She knew what it was like to have unrealistic pressure put on you to succeed in situations where you shouldn't necessarily be. She knew about all of these things and that's why she could relate to the broken boy in front of her. It's what made her stop dancing in the middle of rehearsal and wrap her arms around him in the first place.

"Hey, he doesn't know what he's talking about," she told Ethan softly after his father had walked away. She had heard every word he'd said about living up to the family name and knew that the man didn't think that either she or Ethan were strong enough to pull this off. She also knew that he was wrong. "This is good; it's really good. You know that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

Ethan took a shaky breath and swiped at his glittering eyes with the back of his hand. "I don't know why I let it get to me," he shook his head. "Yeah, so what if the ballet world thinks he's the most talented man alive? I know the real man behind that false visage. He's a bastard."

"And he's your father, and it's really hard when you just want him to act like he's proud of you and he can't be bothered to say a single nice word," Abigail replied, thinking of her own father. "My mom is probably the most supportive person on the planet, but sometimes it's like she is trying to live vicariously through me because she wasn't good enough to make it. And my father can't even be bothered to show up for any of my performances. I get it, Ethan, I do. Parents can let us down sometimes."

"He cheated on my mother, treated her terribly. I never wanted to be like him at all, but professionally, he's had the dream career," he said aloud. "The road he has taken has put him in some pretty amazing places."

"That doesn't mean that has to be the path you take. You are not your father. Those thing he said...you're nothing like him," she said. Part of her knew that she was a hypocrite because she was all about regiment and doing what was expected. However, the carefree rebel in her wanted Ethan to escape the shadow of his father. It gave hope to a girl like her. "Ethan, you are so talented, you have to know that. I believe in what you are doing. It's different and it's fresh and it might just be exactly what ballet needs. Every generation has someone come along and change everything. Who's to say you're not that someone for ours?"

"Is that why you agreed to do this, because you think I'm headed somewhere?"

"No, I know you are," she replied evenly. "I take my career very seriously, and I wouldn't waste my time if you didn't have the talent to pull this off. It's not just about the showcase either. I have something that all the other dancers don't. I have my own professional choreographer, I have you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she shot back automatically. "So stop with the insecurity and freaking out inside your head. Stop listening to your father. If you did what he wanted, you would have signed that contract and spent your best years dancing backup in some chorus instead of getting to live out your dream. That kind of risk takes courage, Ethan. You should never doubt it."

Ethan reached down and circled his fingers around her wrist. "Thank you," he told her seriously. "I really needed to hear that."

"Okay, enough of the heartwarming repartee," she said uncomfortably, carefully drawing her hand back and returning to her starting position in the middle of the floor. "Let's get back to work."

A few months later, before she had taken the stage at Nationals dancing another of his original pieces, Abigail took a risk of her own and kissed him behind the velvet curtain. She pretended then that she was just testing the waters, but the truth was that it stopped being purely professional the moment she started believing in him in that studio when his father couldn't.

"Your dad should have seen this," she whispered as she waited for the next dancer to take the stage.

Ethan smiled over at her. "Yours too."

"He doesn't know what he's missing," she shrugged. "Besides, the most important person was here."

The look she sent him let him know that she meant that he was her important person, and Ethan decided then and there that her approval meant more to him than any compliment his father could ever offer up. Sebastian Karamakov might not believe in him but Abigail Armstrong did, and for Ethan, that was so much better.

* * *

_For ailes and aloha, who both requested this pairing._


	31. Ollie & Abigail & Sammy

_I know what I know. I don't know nothing else. If you could teach me something, I'd sure appreciate the help._  
_"Ride" - G. Love and the Special Sauce_

"What ya thinkin' about?"

Abigail looked up at Ollie on the fourth day of Third Year and smiled mysteriously. The truth was that she was thinking about her fourth day of First Year with Sammy and how he had nearly dropped her when Miss Raine had made them practice lifts for an hour straight. She was thinking about how on the fourth day of Second Year, he had admitted that he had missed her all summer and given her half his mango as some sort of peace offering. She was thinking about how he should be here for the fourth day of Third Year and how part of her would always be missing because he was.

"Nothing much," she answered finally. "What are you doing here?"

Ollie looked down at Abigail on the fourth day of his second attempt at Third Year and shrugged noncommittally. The truth was he was thinking about his fourth day of training Sammy last year when he had chewed him out for not really caring one way or the other if he passed his exams. He was thinking about how on the fourth day after they started dating, he had admitted that he still didn't know what he was doing but he liked the way that Ollie made him feel whenever he looked at him. He was thinking about how he should be there for the fourth day of his Third Year and how part of him would always be missing because he was.

"Just killing time before class. I heard Grace was working with Christian this year," he replied. "I talked to Miss Raine, thought we would make a good pair."

Abigail looked up at Ollie on the fourth day of Third Year and agreed because Sammy had been right when he'd said that Ollie was the best dancer at the Academy. The truth was that she had fallen behind last year in her attempt to find interests outside ballet. She was thinking about how no one had really talked to her all summer except Ethan and how she really missed him because it was nice to feel like someone was in her corner. She was thinking how she hadn't really had anyone else like that since Sammy died and how much she could use someone like that in Sydney again.

"That's fine, better than some of the other talentless morons in there," she muttered. "Are you sure you're going to stick with us all year and not audition again for the company?"

Ollie looked down at Abigail on the fourth day of Third Year and promised because Sammy had been right when he'd said that Ollie needed to quit thinking he was better than the Academy. The truth was that he had lost his head lat year because his ego hadn't gotten in the way. He was thinking about how no one had really talked to him all summer except Miss Raine when she invited him back into the program and how he really missed that kind of support because it was nice to feel like someone was in his corner. He was thinking how he hadn't really had anyone else like that since Sammy died and how much he could use someone like that at the Academy again.

"I want to do this the right way," he told her. "I need to do this the right way."  
"For Sammy?"

"For Sammy," he confirmed. "I'm dancing for two now. He didn't get his dream, so I am just going to have to chase mine that much harder for both of us."

They looked at each other right then and there on the fourth day of Third Year and vowed that they would work hard and make it no matter what. The truth was that Ollie wasn't the only one dancing for two and it was equally as important for Abigail to get into the company too before they could truly be successful. Solo after solo, they dominated the classes and became standouts by the time their final auditions came around. No one was surprised when they were both handed contracts after flawless performances before the most important dancers in all of Australia. It had been their plan all along, ever since that fourth day of Third Year when she had looked at him and he had looked at her and they had both felt Sammy pushing them together.

* * *

_For Guest._


	32. Saskia & Tara & Abigail

_It's only a phase, walking on a thin line. You're gonna see that these are the days. You got to take a second, remember to breathe._  
_"Shake It Off" - Secondhand Serenade_

"Saskia's back."

Tara looked up from her deep heal stretch and met Abigail's eyes. "What?"

"Ollie said she is working with the chorus, helping to train the newer dancers," Abigail explained in a low voice, careful to avoid the scrutiny of the professionals overseeing the auditions for the Company. "She's going to be in the room when we dance. I just didn't want it to catch you off guard."

Two years ago, a year ago, even six months ago, Abigail would have kept Saskia's presence secret to give herself an unnecessary competitive edge. However, time, maturity and a boy named Ethan had changed that. "Thanks, Abs," she said softly, trying to refocus her attention on the audition in front of her. "I can't believe they let her back in here."

"I agree, but you can't let it get inside your head. This is what we've been working two years for, Tara, and all the ones before that. Don't let some jealous, washed-up dancer take that away from you," Abigail instructed her before turning on the floor to give proper attention to her laterals. "It's just like it was with Grace and Christian last year at the Prixe. You had all that going on and you still managed to tuck it away. It's time to focus like that so you can go in there and just dance."

Fifteen minutes, Tara followed Ben and Abigail into the small studio to line up with the other dancers who had been invited for callbacks in front of the Company heads. She moved into fifth position and started the group number, hitting each mark with the precise perfection and measured strength. She could just see her friend doing the same to her left and Ben a few rows ahead of her. When they finally finished with a deep bow, she felt like she could finally breathe again, or at least until it was time for her solo.

"Tara Webster," Saskia announced coldly as she stopped in front of the lanky brunette. She handed her a call sheet with the assigned times for the solo performances. "I just can't wait to see what monstrosity you're going to inflict on us now."

"Jealous that she danced better than you at the Prixe, Saskia? I heard that you had a few choice words for Webster here when you saw her take on the Red Shoes. I just found it a little sad that you could be bothered to look it up online," Abigail said with that false sweetness that had stung many women before her. "I guess I would feel the same if I had been overshadowed so easily by a girl ten years younger than me, especially if she also happened to have a broken back. I forgot how you got that way, Tara. Saskia, remind me, do you happen to remember?"

Saskia glared at the petite spitfire in front of her. "Be back here at two, Tara," she ordered before stalking away.

Abigail didn't even acknowledge her little tirade as she blew at her nails. "C'mon, Tara, I want to get some food in me before I get warmed back up," she decided aloud, grabbing her friend's hand to lead her out of the studio. "I mean it, get her out of your head."

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?" Abigail asked distractedly as she navigated her way through the busy hallway. She was focused on getting to the cafe, having already forgotten about the little scene with Saskia before.

"Just put her in her place like that," Tara answered in awe. "I could never do that."

Abigail spun around on her heel and planted her hand firmly on her side. "Are you kidding me, Tara? Grow up," she blurted out harshly. "Seriously, that woman put you through hell last year and you're still letting her get to you? Take the power away from her. Go in that room and just dance, show her why you are so much better than her. I can't keep reassuring you that you can do this. At some point, you're going to have to starting believing in yourself on your own."

Tara thought about how Abigail had been the one to get her head back in the game last year at the Prixe. She thought about how competing with her had driven Tara more than once. She thought about how much the girl had changed and how much she seemed to care. She thought about all that and then threw her arms around Abigail in a tight hug.

"Thank you."

"Alright, enough," Abigail giggled a little, pulling back to put some distance between them. "Let's get food in me. I will seriously murder you if my stomach is growling during my audition."

An hour later, Tara went into the studio alone. She smiled at the panel and then over at Zach and Miss Raine. She even managed a fake but polite smile in Saskia's direction as she took her place in the middle of the floor. The former ballerina scowled at her, but that only made Tara smile that much brighter. She glanced at where Abigail was watching through the observation window, smiling encouragingly with that little nod of hers.

"Alright, Tara," Miss Raine announced. "You may begin."

Tara spent the next four-and-a-half minutes dancing better than she ever had in her life. It was better than the final performance First Year when she had made all the critics doubt their own opinion. It was better than the Red Shoes dance at the Prixe when she had brought the whole house down with her emotional number. It was better than modern piece that had gotten her this callback in the first place. It was just her and the music and that studio and those moves.

Three hours after that, the dancers lined the small studio as the Company heads handed the casting list to Saskia for her to read. It was no surprise when she heard both Abigail and Ben's names read. It was shocking, however, when Saskia audibly groaned and announced, "Tara Webster," as the final slot for the Company chorus.

Tara squealed as she launched herself at Abigail and Ben grabbed her around the waist to spin her around in celebration. The three of them grinned at each other, laughing in disbelief at the fortunate luck of it all. They were going to be part of the Australian Ballet Company, dancing at the Opera House just like they'd always dreamed. It was hard to believe but it was real. It was finally coming true.

As the other dancers started to file out of the room, Tara grabbed her bag and looped her arm through Abigail's. Ben followed closely behind. The three of them had something huge to celebrate, and they were not going to do it holed up in the studio. Just as she was about to leave the room, Tara stopped her two friends short so that she could turn around.

"I should thank you, you know," she called out to Saskia. "If you hadn't done what you did, I probably wouldn't be here."

Saskia shook her head in disbelief. "You're thanking me?"

"When it happened, I couldn't figure out why you would ever want to do that to another dancer. When someone explained to me how it was out of jealousy, I just sort of felt sorry for you. It was pathetic really," Tara mused wistfully. "And then that someone became my best friend and my partner became my incredibly talented boyfriend and I somehow ended up being a better dancer than I was before. So thanks, I guess, you kinda helped me get here."

With that, Tara tugged on Ben's hand and pulled Abigail toward the door. It didn't matter if Saskia was going to be there anymore. She had left all the fear and the resentment back there on the floor. Tara was a better dancer than Saskia, and she would get to have the career that the injured woman could only dream of now. She would do all that with her boyfriend and her best friend at her side because she didn't want to do it alone. Unlike Saskia, she wouldn't have to either. She had people that would always care enough to see her through.

* * *

_For Mello's requested Tara/Saskia rivalry and Abigail/Tara friendship._


	33. Sammy & Abigail II

_You taught me precious secrets of a true love with holding nothing. You came out in front when I was hiding, now I'm so much better._  
_"A Song For You" - Donny Hathaway_

"Sammy, it's okay."

It was a few minutes after Sammy had stopped them from going further on the night of Tara's winter-themed rooftop formal. He had known that night that Abigail was the prettiest girl he had ever known, and he had never wanted anything more than to be with her when she had walked down the stairs before they'd gone. It was like the moment unfolded in slow motion, revealing her to him like a gift just waiting to be opened. However, by the time she had led him out of the dance and they had ended up back in the candlelit room he shared with Christian, his nerves found him singing a very different tune.

"Really, I promise, it's totally fine," she said softly as she stepped away from his desk to sit next to him on the mattress. It had taken both of them a moment to collect themselves, but now that she had given him a little space, she seemed to have her head about her. "These things happen. We can try again if you want or just pretend that it never happened."

He reached out blindly for her hand and brushed his thumbs over her knuckles. "It's not that I don't want to..." he trailed off. He had been feeling a little confused lately, and the challenge of this wasn't making it an easier. "I just want it to be right. For both of us. I just don't want you to regret it."

Abigail shook her head slightly. "I could never regret it," she replied quietly. "But I also said we weren't ready and maybe I was right before. It's okay that you want to wait. I think it's sweet that you aren't doing this just because you want it - that you actually care enough to want to make it good."

"I love you, you know," he whispered. He had never said those words before. "It's not that I don't. I don't want you to question my feelings for you."

"I don't," she promised him shortly. "I won't. I also won't just give up on us because you're confused, Sammy. It's okay, we're only sixteen. We're not supposed to have everything figured out right now. Dealing with dance is enough. You don't need to worry about this, about us. I'll wait however long it takes for you to figure everything out. I promise you that I can be patient."

Sammy looked over at Christian's bed forlornly and then up at her hopefully. "You're amazing," he breathed before leaning forward to kiss her. He knew that her reaction could have been very different. She could have blown it out of proportion or chosen not to understand. Instead, she was being surprisingly mature. "I want to figure it out, Abigail. I will, I promise. Just don't give up on us."

Abigail stayed true to her word for the next month while Sammy spent time carefully considering what was going on in his head and in his heart. It was terribly confusing and he knew that the conflicting emotions were likely just a side effect of growing up. He also welcomed the possibility that it meant something more and considered what that could mean for the rest of his life. In the end, he knew that no matter what other feeling he had in his heart, he was also in love with Abigail. It was then that he decided it was likely about the particular person rather than the gender and their body parts. He told Abigail as much one day when they were sitting side by side in the park working on homework. She had only smiled and patted his cheek with a bright smile before turning back to her math homework.

It would take another four months before Sammy felt ready to be intimate in that way with Abigail, but when they were finally together, he decided that the patient waiting had been worth it. This time, it wasn't about wanting to take the next step because it felt like it was time. It wasn't just another thing to mark off the relationship to-do list. He wanted to be with her because he was in love with her and wanted to share everything, share all of him, with her.

That yearning to just be part of her drove him through the next two years. It determined his entire path at the Academy. It led him to placing at the top at Nationals and taking the Prixe. It gave him the courage to choose to stay in Sydney when given the choice. It pushed him to the top of their class and into a contract spot with the Company at the end of Third Year. It's why he gave her a small diamond promise ring the night of their graduation. And when he told her that it wasn't an engagement, just his vow that they would get married someday, she used the same confident words she had told him so many months before.

"I'll wait however long it takes for you to figure everything out," she promised with a smile as bright as the full moon shining above them. "I promise you that I can be patient."

* * *

_For wittykittylizzie._


	34. Christian & Abigail & Ethan

_This is the way you left me. I'm not pretending. No hope, no love, no glory. No happy ending.  
"Happy Ending" – MIKA_

"We shouldn't be back here again, not this soon."

Abigail looked up from where she was staring at the water, a gaze that seemed to have been locked permanently on the rise and fall of the waves for hours. The truth was that she agreed with Kat's simple assessment, but she couldn't find the words to vocalize it. She couldn't find the voice to say much of anything. Even the tears had stopped awhile ago. It was just long stares and slight nods and undetectable flinches whenever anyone tried to hug her.

The accident had happened three hours into their Tuesday classical ballet class when Ms. Raine had just about had enough of Ben and Tara flirting. Zach had come in with the same sad look on his face that Abigail recognized instantly as the one he had worn when they'd found out about Sammy. One look around the studio and she had known that it was Christian. She could still remember Tara's scream before she fainted.

There were a lot of people grieving for the tall, graceful rebel. They had been weeping aimlessly all week, gathering around the sad plot in the cemetery next to his mother's. Sammy's parents had even come down to make an appearance, and Abigail had dutifully accepted their hugs when they had passed by her in the procession line. She knew that this had to be drudging up all kinds of memories for them, just as it had for everyone. She couldn't find it to be sad for herself, so she decided to wear their grief for them.

"Abigail?"

She looked up and managed a smile as she took the can of soda from Tara's hand. The willowy farm girl had barely left Ben's side since they'd found out. She was clearly in grieving, still trying to deal with all the feelings the two of them had suppressed all during Third Year and struggling to make sense how it all ended with unfinished business. Kat was equally as devastated, and Abigail thought that the blonde was almost as inconsolable as she had been after they'd lost Sammy. It was hard to be hit with back-to-back blows like that. A second car accident had Kat swearing never to ride in an automobile again.

There were moments when Abigail felt like she didn't have the right to be sad. She hadn't been a great love of his life like Tara had. She hadn't shared the intimacy with him like Kat. There wasn't a bromance between them like the one he'd shared with Ben. There wasn't even a competitive edge like the one that had existed between Christian and Ethan and then Ollie. No, Abigail and Christian had been barely friends for the first two years at the Academy, and then losing Sammy had changed all of that. He had become more than just her partner that summer after the break when he had disappeared without a word during the Prixe.

No one knew that Christian had regularly called to check on her from his road trip with his father. After a few weeks in Barcelona with Ethan, she had come back to help her mother with the impending divorce. Abigail had tried to dance as much as she could and even took a few singing lessons, anything to distract her. She had never really questioned why he had taken the sudden interest in her but Abigail knew that it all reverted back to Sammy. His best friend had loved her and that meant that she mattered to Christian. With him gone, he felt like it fell on him to take care of her.

_"You know that you don't have to take care of me," she had told him two weeks into Third Year, just after Grace had come back and tried to get them split up as partners. He had adamantly refused and had gone toe-to-toe with Grace in an uncharacteristic display of actually caring about ballet._

_Christian tapped her wrist as she stood stretching at the barre. "That's not the way this works, Armstrong," he reminded her before lifting his own leg to start working out his calves. "We are partners, and that extends beyond just the floor. I am there to support you, just like you're there to support me. We've been through the past year together. I won't leave you now."_

And now, just like Sammy before him, Christian had left her. She knew that it wasn't his choice; the accident hadn't even been his fault. The driver had been drunk and had hit him from behind. There was literally nothing he could have done, according to the people that had debriefed them at the hospital. It didn't make it hurt any less for any of them. Even if she hadn't been in love with Christian, Abigail had loved him. For a girl who didn't easily love, it was easy to see that this had torn her apart.

"Come on, Abs, you need to eat."

Abigail looked up at Kat and shook her head.

"Why don't you come sit down with us?"

Abigail shook her head again, this time at Tara.

"Abigail, please, just come over here."

She glared at Ben and turned away to stare back out at the water.

"Abigail? Abigail?"

She ignored Ollie just as she had ignored the others.

"Abigail, look at me, come on."

It's then and only then that she turned, this time to meet blue eyes that had tethered her back to the ground a year ago when she had stood on this same beach mourning the first boy who had left her. "Ethan," she breathed out, launching herself into his arms as she buried her face in the curve of his neck. He was warm and familiar and safe. "I thought that you already left for Barcelona."

"I did, I came back."

"I don't need you to take care of me," she asserted despite the fact her face was still buried in his shoulder.

"I know you don't, but I sort of need to take care of you."


	35. Tara & Abigail & Kat II

_Don't listen to the world, they say we're never gonna make it. Don't listen to your friends, they would have never let us start. And don't listen to the voices in your head, listen to your heart.  
"Listen To Your Heart" – The Maine_

Abigail doesn't remember much about the night Sammy died. She could remember Miss Raine coming in to tell everyone while they were rehearsing for Peter Pan and then she could remember Ben helping her back to the dorm. She could vaguely remember Kat coming in with Tara to help her out of the shower, how numb her toes were because the hot water had long ran cold. The rest of it was kind of a blur, though she did sort of remember waking up in the middle of the night from her place on the bed next to Christian to find that Tara was missing. It's only after the funeral is over that she has any real memories of what happened.

"Grace is going to beat me in the Prixe," Tara announced while the three of them were sitting at the café pretending that they had appetites big enough to actually eat. Abigail hadn't felt hungry since before that night, and Tara looked like she was going to throw up every time she tried to take a bite. Even the perpetually hungry Kat seemed to have lost the need for sustenance. Were it not for an eating disorder and a demanding caloric intake, they probably wouldn't have even what little they'd managed to consume. "She's an awful person and so talented and she's going to beat me."

"Probably," Abigail acknowledged, earning a sharp jab in the ribs from Kat. "What? It's true. If Tara can't get her head in the game like I've been saying, that vampire is going to suck her talent dry. Pretending otherwise isn't going to help the situation."

Kat rolled her eyes as she pushed a bite of her burger around her plate. "Yeah, but there's a nicer way to say it," she pointed out before actually managing to eat a small bit of tomato. "You've been helping her train. Can't you muster up some words of optimism?"

"False hope is your department," Abigail retorted before stabbing a forkful of salad into her mouth begrudgingly. One down, only twenty-six left to go, she estimated. Grief really sucked. "Tara knows what she needs to do if she wants to take her down. It's the Red Shoes or nothing. We've all been enduring her dramatics about it for long enough."

It only takes a few hours after that dreadful lunch for Tara to find the footing she needs to actually take on the complicated piece, a version that Abigail recommended and that Saskia had never danced. She leaves everything on the stage when she finally performs it, and all three of the girls are in tears by the time she falls to the stage in a useless heap. Tara admits that she saw Sammy later, and the three of them huddle around in a tight hug after they dance Ben's revised choreography on the Opera House stage.

Tara doesn't remember much about the night she danced that dance. She could remember Ben stopping by the dressing room to tell her that he needed her down front. She could vaguely remember looking up to see Christian right before he left, how mixed-up her heart felt even as Ben held onto her tightly. The rest of it was kind of a blur, though she did sort of remember waking up in the middle of the night from the slumber party in Kat and Abigail's room to find that the blonde was missing. It's only after they're back at the form that she has any real memories of what happened.

"You guys are all going to leave me next year," Kat announced while the two of them were laying out one afternoon in the hot summer sun. Kat hadn't felt relaxed in so long, since the day Sammy had died and she had lost her true partner-in-crime. Tara had been so wrapped up in the Prixe, and even the perpetually cold Abigail had softened considerably to help their friend through the competition. "You're all going to get contracts and I am going to be left alone at the Academy to rot in Third Year."

"Probably not," Tara disagreed, earning a smile of disbelief from Kat. "What? It's true! If you just work a little harder like I've been saying, you will be able to get a contract with the Company and join us. Feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help the situation."

Kat rolled her eyes as she turned over to start tanning her back. "Yeah, but it makes me feel better right now," she whined. "You sound so much like Abigail. Can't you just pretend to feel sorry for me?"

"False hope is your department," Tara reminded her before spritzing water on her face in a vain attempt to cool down. She did sound a little like Abigail, she supposed. That girl's influence really sucked. "Abigail knows what it takes to make it. It's hard work or nothing. She was right; it's time to get serious. We've all been enduring your 'I don't care' routine long enough."

It only takes a few hours after that frustrating conversation for Kat to find the commitment she needed to recommit herself to ballet once again, one that even Abigail could admire and that Tara couldn't argue with. She leaves that pretending to careless thing behind right there in the summer sun, and all three of the girls are in hysterics when Abigail calls to tell them about Ethan's failed attempt at choreographing in strictly Spanish earlier that day. Abigail admits that she misses them, and the three of them start to make plans for when they'd all be together in Sydney again.

Kat doesn't remember much about the night she signed her contract with the company. She could remember Ethan stopping by her apartment with an expensive bottle of champagne. She could vaguely remember Tara sitting on Ben's knee, how happy the two of them looked now that they were back in Sydney again. The rest of it was kind of a blur, though she did sort of remember waking up to find that Ethan and Abigail were missing. It's only the next morning when the three girls are catching up over coffee that she has any real memories of what happened.

"Ethan wants to give us a try again," Abigail announced while they were sitting in the coffeeshop, trying not to grimace at the soft music playing that was exponentially amplified by their hangovers. Abigail hadn't felt so scared in so long, since the day Sammy had died and she had lost the first love of her life. Kat had been so wrapped up in her last year at the Academy, and Tara had made her career her priority these last several months. "You guys are focused on your careers, and all I can worry about is my love life. How have the tables turned this much?"

"You fell in love," Kat teased, earning a conspiratorial grin from Tara. "What? It's true. Our little coldhearted Abigail went and grew herself a heart. Pretending that she's still the same isn't going to help the situation."

Abigail groaned as she took a long sip of her espresso. "Maybe not, but it isn't really helping the situation any," she pointed out. "You sound so much like Tara. Can't you just pretend to be helpful for once?"

"False hope is my department," Kat reminded her before taking a gulp of her own mocha. She was a little reminiscent of Tara right now, she had to admit. Yikes, that was scary. "But I think that you need to be realistic this time, so I don't want to play into it. You like my brother, and all the denial in the world isn't going to change those feelings."

It only takes a few hours after that blunt reminder for Abigail to find Ethan and admit that she is willing to give him a second chance, one that Tara squeals over and Kat happily approves. She lets him kiss her near the waterfront, and all three of the girls giggle when Abigail recounts the whole thing a few days later, this time over cocktails. There are all these threads of memories that weave them together now, and the three of them are going to be best friends no matter what comes along.

* * *

_For the lovely, wittykittylizzie._


	36. Kat & Ben & Tara II

_Now you know, is it just for show, just a foolish game that you hide behind? Don't forget the nights when it all felt right. Are you not the same as you used to be?  
"Used to Be" – Beach House_

The three of them were an odd trio really, three people who shouldn't have stayed friends after everything changed but somehow managed to come out closer than ever before on the other end. For Kat, Tara and Ben, the last two years had been filled with loss and heartbreak that should have made things end terribly, and there were definitely a lot of relationships that could never be repaired. Yet, the three of them clung tightly to each other and were able to forgive. While the riff with the rest of the group was so wide that there was no coming back from it now, those three were a family.

Ben had come into the group with the biggest crush on Kat, but that had soon fallen to the wayside when she had proven to be a better friend than potential girlfriend. He had managed to make things work with Tara for almost a full year before there had been a little indiscretion on her part with Christian. She had begged for forgiveness and Ben had been able to grant it, but there was no going back when it came to their relationship. Neither of them could stand to be in the same room as Christian after what he had done, but Ben and Tara somehow managed to remain friends. Kat sided with Tara automatically out of obligation, and Abigail strangely drifted toward Christian. The two of them eventually started up some sort of thing and ended up in a world of their own, one that became even more distant when Ethan called on them to come to Barcelona to star in his new ballet.

Tara had missed Christian at first, and both Kat and Ben had noticed. They tried to distract her with visits to her parents' house and auditions all over Sydney for freelance pieces that would fill in the gaps when they weren't needed in for choral work with the National Ballet. It worked for awhile until it didn't. Kat eventually gave in and called her ex-boyfriend in a vain hope that he'd talk to Tara. It took some time before he came back, Abigail and Ethan in tow, for a visit. It all somehow worked out where the two of them could at least be civil, and Ben chose to be polite by ignoring Christian's existence altogether. He wasn't jealous of the other dancer any longer, those feelings for Tara long past. He was just concerned for his friend, a worry that he shared with Kat. However, they're all surprised when she says that she's over Christian (who is still with Abigail) and is actually kind of having a crush on Ethan. Tara's history with Ethan had ended badly.

Kat eventually started to find some really decent commercial work to supplement her meager earnings with the ballet, things that put her back in the orbit of one Myles Kelly. It had been awkward those first few times they were around each other until he pulled her aside one day to apologize and the whole thing ended with a big hug and a fit of laughter. A few months later, he found the courage to ask her out for coffee after a rehearsal, and the rest of it became a repeat of history. Kat fell for him all over again, this time even harder, and Ben and Tara both swore that they had never seen her happier. Her friend's courage to give second chances encouraged Tara to take a risk of her own and give Ethan another go. Ben was silently supportive and gave both of his best friends an unacknowledged blessing to chase after their happiness.

Eventually, though, the girls realize that their third wheel is unhappy on his own. They can see the gaping holes in his big heart, and they want to fill it up. Tara had noticed that he hadn't really been looking much, and Kat seemed to remember a conversation after the whole "gay" debacle their Second Year where he had pointed out that he didn't really care if Sammy liked guys or not since he believed that people fall in love with the person and not the gender. She brings it up to Tara one day and Tara's face lights up. She says that she remembers how Sammy got happy again after that whole three-girls thing, and Kat asks if she means that they should set him up with Ollie. Tara points out that they're both single and that they love both of the boys and wouldn't it just perfect if that's how it worked out?

Kat thinks about it for a while and looks at how incestual their group had become. She also liked the idea of them all being tied together by something more than just memories. Ollie would be good for Ben, and he could definitely be good for Ollie as well. Opposites attracted, as was proven by Christian and Abigail, and maybe the seriousness of Ollie could bring some maturity to the fun-loving Ben. Ben could probably get Ollie to loosen up a little too. It would be perfect, difficult but perfect.

It ends up not being as hard as they would have thought, though, when Kat basically asks Ollie if he could ever be interested in Ben. After saying that he was kind of fit and fun to be around, Kat orchestrated a game of Spin the Bottle in the apartment she shared with Tara and made sure that it worked out so that the two would kiss. Ben turns red but doesn't back down from the dare, and two hours and many drinks later, Tara finds Ollie pressed against the brick wall of their building out on the fire escape while Ben leaves little marks behind on his neck.

Two years later, the two of them become the first to marry, having a civil ceremony on the beach at sunset. Ethan and Tara have broken up and gotten back together a couple times, and Kat isn't sure if it will last forever. Grace has shown back up and is part of the group again. Myles is long gone, but Christian and Abigail are surprisingly still together. All of them come to the wedding, where Kat is the best man for Ollie and Tara stands up with Ben. While the rest of them danced at the reception, Ben found his two girls and wrapped his arms around their waists while they watched the tides go in and out. They were still a strange trio and they were still the best of friends.

* * *

_For ailes._


	37. Ollie & Grace

_I want the one word that you refuse to say to me. You're so good at giving me responsibility. I wash my hands clean and let you watch me as I go. I'm sorry for you, just so you know._  
_ "Say You're Sorry" – Sara Bareilles_

Ollie watched Grace at the party before Third Year, the one that started off with her telling the group she couldn't wait to watch them rip each other apart and ended with her pushing Tara's cake into the pool. He could see right through the blonde; she was nothing more than a spoiled little girl who used her meanness as a defense mechanism for a mother who left her too soon and a father who never loved her enough. Girls like her were a dime a dozen in the ballet world, and other than her emotionless talent, there really wasn't anything special about Grace to the naked eye. However, Ollie saw more than that when he looked at her; he saw himself.

"You know, they'd probably forgive you if you just ask," he murmured to her while he stood just behind her. She was looking down at the buffet area where Christian and Ben were laughing with the girls. "They're actually pretty great friends."

Grace rolled her eyes and glanced at him over her shoulder. "Why would I want to be friends with them?"

"Because you're back in Sydney," he pointed out. "You could have chosen any school in the world, and you chose to come back to the Academy. You wouldn't have done that unless you wanted a second chance. I have to believe somewhere in there that you're looking for redemption."

She spun on her heel, hands planted firmly on her slender hips. "I came back for revenge," she shot back. "They made my life hell last year, totally humiliated me. I was nothing but a friend to Abigail and then Tara. Neither of them could bother to be supportive of me when I actually needed someone to stand up with me."

"You mean they wouldn't lie for you?" Ollie asked rhetorically. "Tara never told us why you left the Academy, so I'm not exactly sure why you left. But I know what happened with Abigail, the tricks you tried to pull with Ethan and then on Kat. You can play the Poor Little Lost Girl routine with someone else because I'm not buying it."

"Why do you even care?"

"Because you're lonely, and no one should go through this life alone," he shook his head sadly. "Look, I used to be like you and think that I didn't need anyone or anything. Sammy showed me that I was wrong, and after I lost it, those people were there for me. No one else cared. They're my family now, and I think you want them to be yours too. People like us are messed up, Grace. We're driven by something different, something darker. My own family couldn't bother to care on the best day, let alone the worst."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"I know everything about you," he corrected her, "and I'm only trying to help you. You're not here for revenge. You don't just decide to change your entire life because you want to get back at someone. I can't believe that even you are that much of a wreck. You are so talented, Grace, and it reminds me of how cocky and selfish I was before I met Sammy. I thought that everything was everyone else's fault. I couldn't get why these things always happened to me."

"And let me guess? You realized that they happen to you because you cause them," she retorted cockily, her eyebrow perfectly arched. "Cut the psychobabble, Ollie, I don't need you to analyze my motives. I assure you that they're completely transparent."

Ollie shook his head sadly and looked down at her. The blonde was all faux bluster, and it was almost pathetic how much she was protesting in vain. "Grace, it's okay to want people to care about you," he assured her. "Even after everything, you know that they still do, especially Tara."

"They'd never forgive me…"

"They forgave me," he countered. "After how I treated Sammy and the things that I said, they still accepted me back into the circle. They let me mourn with them, kept me together when I just wanted to fall apart. So trust me when I say, they'll forgive you. You just have to ask. I'll even go down there with me. I know it's scary, but you've got me."

Grace timidly looped her arm through Ollie's arm as he led her down the cement staircase to where Tara, Abigail and Kat were chatting happily with Christian and Ben. While Kat and Christian's defenses were instantly up, Abigail just looked at her with a general sense of distaste and Ben smiled nervously. As always, it took Tara stepping up to get the ball rolling. After Grace apologized and Ollie explained that the blonde wanted to make things right, the others slowly came around a little. By the end of the party, they all had soft plans to go to the beach that weekend. It wasn't much but it was a start. Everyone deserved a second beginning, and Grace was grateful that Ollie was there to make sure that she got hers.

* * *

_For me because everyone needs a little redemption sometimes, and I think Ollie and Grace deserve theirs._


	38. Ollie & Abigail & Sammy II

_They say in the end, true love prevails, but in the end, true love can't be no fairytale. To say I'll never make your dreams come true would be wrong, but maybe, darlin', I could help them along.  
"I Wanna Marry You" – Bruce Springsteen_

"Do you have your tie?"

Sammy looked up from his reflection in the mirror and nodded thoughtfully before holding up the silver slip of silk. Abigail came over and took it from him, carefully looping it around his neck and tying it neatly. She could feel the nervousness rolling off him in waves. This was a pretty big day, one they had both been looking forward to for so long. Weddings only came along once in a lifetime if you were lucky, and this one (a small, private affair) had been months in the making. They'd gone over every painstaking details together, and now in just a few minutes, a justice of the peace would unite the happy couple in marriage.

"You look beautiful," he murmured as he turned to smile at her, holding her gaze with warm love and affection. She blushed prettily and shrugged the compliment off without any kind of verbal response. She only slipped her arm through his so that her fingertips rested lightly on his forearm and grinned at their reflection in the narrow looking glass. "I love you, you know?"

"I love you, too," she said softly as their eyes met in the mirror.

"This is really happening, huh?"

Abigail nodded as she allowed him to lead her out of the small room where they'd gotten dressed. She could see all of her friends waiting down in front. Christian and Ben looked handsome in their dark suits, ties matching Sammy's. Tara and Kat were dressed in the same lavender dresses, holding tiny bouquets of tea roses and white lilies. She could see his mother sitting down in front with Ari, the woman already clutching a lace handkerchief. Her own mother was across the aisle in a pretty hat with a little veil.

"Well, Mr. Evans, I think it's time to do this," she said as they waited for the musical cue. A nontraditional musical piece picked specifically by Abigail soon filled the air. With one last smile in his direction, they started the march down the aisle in perfect unison. Abigail tried to focus on keeping one foot of the other rather than on the blur of people on her left and right. She barely saw Ethan near the front, Miss Raine and Zach just to his side. "Slow down, Sammy. You're making me run, and these heels are not meant for that."

"Sorry," he muttered as they made it halfway down the aisle. He slowed his gait to keep in time with Abigail's slower pace. "There are way more people here than I thought there would be."

"A perfect fifty," she reminded him from behind pursed lips. "That is what we agreed on."

By the time they finally made it to the front of the room, the justice of the peace looked more than ready to get the ceremony under way. The kind-faced man in the black robe smiled at them before he started his brief speech outlining the importance of marriage. Abigail stood proudly at Sammy's side, her arm still tucked firmly in his. She could feel him shaking nervously and found it to be quite adorable. His knees still knocked together after all these years.

"And who gives their blessing for this man in marriage?" the justice asked.

Abigail smiled proudly at the justice and then over at Sammy. "I do," she announced before leaning over to press a gentle kiss to his smooth cheek. She had been so proud when he had asked her to do this, something his father couldn't do after they'd lost him to a heart attack last year. "I wish you a lifetime of happiness."

"Thank you," he murmured back as he let go of her hand and finally turned to his groom. He gazed up at Ollie as if he was the most precious thing in the world, and Abigail couldn't help but look past the couple at her own partner. Ben winked at her before nodding his head back toward the justice as a reminder to pay attention.

Fifteen minutes later, Ollie and Sammy kissed in front of their closest family and friends. Abigail applauded loudly as she met Christian to be escorted back down the aisle. Ben followed closely behind, flanked on either side by Kat and Tara. When the whole lot of them finally made it back to the private room and were joined by Ethan, they relished in a champagne toast before being paraded back outside for an endless barrage of photographs in various combinations and poses. It took more than an hour for them to make it to the reception hall for the party to officially begin, and by then, Abigail was so famished that she nearly devoured her meal whole.

They all watched as Ollie and Sammy took their first dance as a married couple in the middle of the floor and applauded politely through the speeches. Having already given hers at the rehearsal dinner, Abigail was able to enjoy a second glass of champagne from her place between Sammy and Ben while Kat and Christian waxed poetic about the couple. There were more photographs to be taken, and an endless stream of people stopped by the table to tell her how pretty she looked and how beautiful the wedding had been. By the time Sammy finally dragged her out to the dance floor, she was dead on her feet. However, she allowed him to spin her around the floor in an upbeat cha-cha in homage to their old class. When the music transitioned to a slow waltz, she whirled in the opposite direction and into Ollie's waiting arms.

"Well, how does it feel to be married, Mr. Lieberman-Lloyd?"

"Ask me in a couple days when I come back down," he grinned dreamily. "Thank you for everything you have done for us, Abigail, especially walking him down the aisle today. I know that he's still missing his father terribly, but having you there really helped."

"I would do anything for you two, you know that," she reminded him happily. She loved the others, but Sammy and Ollie were special to her. She would do anything for them short of being their surrogate, and that was only because she suspected Ben would have something to say to the contrary. "Just take care of him for me, okay?"

"I will," he promised before leaning down to buss her on the cheek.

Ben came over and tapped on his shoulder then. "Mind if I cut in?"

"Sure, mate," Ollie said, shaking his hand firmly. "Thanks again, Abs."

Ben wrapped his arms around her tightly when they were alone. "This will be us in a month."

"Can't wait," she mused happily before leaning her head to her own fiancee's shoulder.

She looked around to see Kat dancing with Christian and Tara with Ethan. Neither of the couples was together but they were all friends. It was nice that they still had moments like these where they could all be in the same place at once. She caught Sammy's eye as he danced with Ollie near Ethan and Tara. He smiled up at her and winked before mouthing that he loved her. She smiled and inaudibly returned the sentiment. Life was beautiful.

_My take on wittykittylizzie's request._


	39. Ben & Sammy

_You better know that in the end, it's better to say too much than to never say what you need to say again.  
"Say" – John Mayer_

"Can I talk to you, mate?" Ben looked up from where he was stretching out his black satin shoes and nodded at Sammy. His friend sat down next to him on the wooden floor of the studio. "Listen, I know that you're interested in Tara. I just wanted to say a few things before you make your move."

"Uh, okay…"

Sammy rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "T is a special girl. Her heart is so big, but she's been through a lot this year," he explained. "Between her injury and everything that happened with Saskia and the whole mess with Christian, it's just been so much to take on. With the Prixe coming up, she needs to be able to focus. I know that you get how important this is to her. I just want to make sure that you're not going to mess anything up for her."

Ben shook his head as he looked at Sammy seriously. "I would never do that to her."

"That's what Christian said once too," Sammy muttered. "Sorry, I know you're not him. Christian is my best friend, but he is toxic for her. He gets inside her head and distracts her. She deserves more than he can give her right now."

"And he's with Kat."

"Yeah, for now," Sammy deadpanned. He knew the breakup was looming, they all did. When it happened, he feared that it would be even more disastrous than the overhead conversation via walkie talkie had been awhile back. "But you know that it could end and come back around to those two. I don't want her getting heard, and believe it or not, dude, you're my friend too. I don't want this to blow up on you."

"I have to try, mate," Ben shrugged. "I know that Christian could decide that he wants Tara again and she could go right back to him – happily too. I also know that I could be really good for her and she cared about me before I got stupid. I have to prove to her that I want her for her. I hurt her, Sammy, I have to make it right. Tara deserves that much."

Sammy nodded thoughtfully. "All that and more," he agreed. "I'm glad we had this talk."

"Thanks for looking out for her, Tara is lucky to have a friend like you," Ben complimented him. "And I'm lucky too. You care so much about all of us. It's pretty incredible."

"Those girls are my sisters," he answered automatically. "I guess that makes us brothers."

Ben grinned widely. "I like the sound of that. I don't have any brothers."

"Well, I do," Sammy said, referring to Ari and then his friends, "and now so do you."


	40. Abigail & Grace

_All around her people stare as she slowly falls apart, picking up pieces of her clumsy little heart. It's hard to know where you're going when you don't know where to start.  
"Clumsy Little Heart" – Every Avenue_

Relapse.

They told her that it would probably happen and it eventually did, somewhere around the middle of Third Year when her parents' divorce was finalized and Tara got the first lead that she had really wanted in awhile. Abigail had tried calling Ethan when she had felt those familiar pangs stirring in the pit of her stomach, the ones that reminded her that this was her ultimate outlet for control, but things were so busy for him in Barcelona that he couldn't find the time to call her back. She took it as a sign and skipped lunch for three days.

She still remembered the first time that someone noticed that she was eating, back when it was Sammy who loved her and Kat who surprisingly cared enough to realize she hadn't had more than a swish of water in a week. However, the former was long gone from this cruel world and the latter was so wrapped up in the perpetual drama at the Academy to pay attention to what was going on with her roommate. Feeling more alone than she ever had before, Abigail pretended that a few weeks wouldn't hurt her even though she knew the truth.

That's why it surprised her when Grace was the first one to speak up, the first one to sit her down at the café with a salad and a sandwich in front of her, and insist that she eat. She watched Abigail like a hawk while the petite brunette forced an even dozen bites down her throat before fighting the urge to regurgitate it all right there on the pristine sidewalk below their feet. When she was unsatisfied with Abigail's progress, Grace grabbed her by the wrist and marched her down to Miss Raine's office to tell her what was going on. She could have been doing it for revenge or spite, but somehow, even at her angriest, Abigail was thankful for the help. She was just grateful that someone cared.

"You have to get help, Abigail," Grace told her while they waited for Miss Raine to call her mother. "I know you don't think it's that bad yet, but if you don't do get control of this now, you're going to lose everything again – including ballet."

"Telling someone with control issues that they need to get control of their disorder is kind of counterproductive," Abigail pointed out as she stared at the ceiling, pretending not to care. "Besides, with me out of the picture, there's one less competitor for the company slot?"

Grace shook her head and squeezed Abigail's hand despite the girl's protests. "To be the best, you have to beat the best, right?" she asked rhetorically. "You love ballet. You deserve to be here. I know you feel like you're alone; trust me, I've been there. But you're not, Abigail, look around you. You know that Kat and Tara care and that Ethan is absolutely crazy about you. And me. You might not believe it, but I care."

Six weeks later, Abigail left the pointless green plant behind as she exited the rehab facility she had called home for the last little while. She hugged her mother and then her sister on the other side of the door, the one that separated captivity from freedom. She allowed Christian and Ben, Ollie and Kat, Tara and Miss Raine to all greet her and pass her around without much thought. It's only when Ethan finally steps up with tears in his eyes, apologizing in a hushed whisper in her ear as he holds her, that she really gets that she's not alone. It's the blonde girl's hand that she reaches for her that reminds her that even when everything felt like it was out of control and she had no one, she had everything just at her fingertips. Grace had helped save Abigail, and that was how Abigail learned to trust again.


	41. Miss Raine & Her Kids

_The show is over. Say goodbye.  
"Take a Bow" - Madonna_

Miss Raine had never had children of her own, but she had long considered the students at the Academy as hers. They belonged to her in a way that children belonged to mothers, only perhaps a little better because she got to choose them and they got to choose her. All of them were special, but there was something particularly worthwhile that drew her to the group leaving the Academy this year. She knew that even after her long career, she would miss them most of all.

Saying goodbye to Sammy last year had been the beginning of that letting-go process, and it had been under the saddest of circumstances. She rarely made special exceptions, but she had made more than one for Mr. Lieberman. From the day she granted him his second audition after that disastrous first attempt to allowing him to resit finals when he was working those long hours, she had seen that special spark of potential that made her want to go the extra mile for him. His dancing was good but nothing extraordinary when compared to natural talents like Ollie and Christian. However, Sammy had something that the other two lacked – passion. He was passionate about dance and he was passionate about his friends. It was that latter passion that drove the others around him to try harder.

Christian was perhaps the most natural dancer she had ever worked with in her many years at the Academy. It was almost obscene how easily it came to him, and she often literally wanted to shake the boy to make him live up to his potential. He took it for granted when he got distracted by other things in his life, and he lacked the dedication and focus it took for most people to really succeed in the ballet world. However, the past year had changed him and she had started to see him really want it. That meant trying harder in class and in auditions. He'd always made dancing look easy, but now, he made dancing look beautiful. It took love to make that possible.

If Christian was the natural, Ben was the consummate performer. He brought such intense joy to his footwork that it was nearly impossible not to fall in love with the lanky brunette. He was exuberant even under the worst of circumstances, forever able to put aside the personal to just tear it up on the stage. He had been an easy student for her to have when he wasn't messing around when he should be practicing. And despite all that, he'd had a positive impact on Tara as her partner. He had managed to ground even her most head-in-the-cloud dancer, and Miss Raine had been around long enough to know that male leads like that were hard to find.

And of course, Ethan was just a teacher's dream. He had been focused from the first day. He had known that he wanted a contract with the company until he didn't. She had seen it coming throughout his own Third Year when he had started to be less competitive with the other dancers and more competitive with his own father. He had a natural affluence for leadership and made a wonderful choreographer, particularly in settings open to modern interpretation of the classics. He also had a keen eye for picking out talent, one she'd seen him use first with the natural Tara and the dedicated Abigail. If he had been the only student to come out of her tenure at the National Academy, she knew that she could consider her teaching career a great success.

Lucinda loved the boys, but it was her girls that she found particularly special. She had known Katrina since she was a small girl, just this blonde mess of a thing playing in the tulle of skirts backstage while her parents were off working. She had watched her grow into a wonderful woman of great passion, and it frustrated her how much she took for granted. She wanted her to realize her talent, to work hard and put in the long hours, because she knew she could make it. Her personality alone was enough to draw in crowds. Katrina had perhaps grown up the most in her time at the Academy, a maturity punctuated heavily by the loss of Sammy and striking out into the world without the security of having her family around.

Tara was another person who had grown exponentially since she had first come to Sydney. She had been nothing more than a wide-eyed farm girl when she had come to the Academy, and Miss Raine admittedly hadn't expected her to make it through the year. She had only just made it there in the first place, and those first several months had been terrible. And then, as if someone had flipped a switch, she started to dance with purpose and direction. Tara called it flying, but Lucinda only saw certainty. It was what allowed her to win at Nationals and place second at the Prixe. It was what had brought her to the top of her class and assured that she would have a bright ballet future ahead.

Finally, there was Abigail. She had transformed from a cold, guarded ballet student into a warm, graceful dancer. It wasn't about getting the lead or getting noticed anymore. It was about doing it because she loved it, because she needed it to breathe. Lucinda wished she (or the Academy) could take credit for it, but they hadn't been able to bring Abigail out of her shell. It had taken free-form choreography from Ethan to get her to really let go. She had seen tapes later of Revue and knew she could have never gotten Abigail to dance like that. It reminded her that there were still lessons she herself could learn from her students.

On their last day at the Academy, she watched as Christian and Kat, Tara and Ben, Abigail and Ethan, all stood together on the docks, wearing matching bracelets with Sammy's initials on them and thought about how they weren't saying goodbye. They would not leave each other, but they were leaving her. Just like a real mother, she had to let them go out on their own and pray that she had done enough to get them ready for the real world. They were ready, she just wasn't sure that she was.


	42. Zach & Grace

_She told me she'd love me like fireworks, and that's the way I like it. So please, baby, please, open your eyes and catch my disease._  
_"Catch My Disease" - Ben Lee_

When she had been 17, he had been the one whose life was together and she had been the mess. However, by the time she turned 25, the situation had reversed itself and he was barely hanging on by a string. Zach was merely a washed-up choreographer with bit jobs designing dances for the Company chorus when their regulars were busy, while she was the prima ballerina who had toured the world twice over. He was a widow who had lost his wife to cancer and his life to the bottom of a bottle. She was the wispy blonde who still felt alive whenever she looked at him and wanted desperately to make him feel the same whenever he looked at her.

"Come on, Zach, you have got to get yourself together," she said as she perched on the edge of his messy bed, reaching beneath the metal bed frame to retrieve one of her red stiletto heels. They had been doing this, sleeping together, for two months because he was a drunk and she was in love. She knew it was a bad idea and somewhere in his boozy haze, he knew that she deserved better. "You have a meeting in twenty minutes with the director of the Company. We'll never make it on time, but you can at least use me as an excuse if you bring me with you."

He stretched his long legs and felt the unused muscles reflex automatically. It had been awhile since he had danced himself and in moments like this, he knew that his body missed it. He reached over for his phone to check the time and instead found his fingers curling instinctively around the glass neck of a whiskey bottle. He pulled it up and gingerly tilted between his lips. He was disappointed but not altogether surprised to find it empty. Grace just reached forward and snapped it out of his limp grasp as she headed toward the adjoining bathroom to turn on his shower.

Zach listened to her humming to herself as he finally swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and padded into the bathroom. He knew that she stayed because he gave her something she never had growing up and craved endlessly. He also knew that it was more than a little messed up the way he took her for granted. Grace was the only thing saving him from drowning completely. "You're too good to me," he said against the side of her neck as he pressed a kiss to the soft skin there. His eyes met hers in the mirror over the sink. "Sorry I'm such a mess. I'm going to do better."

She had heard it before and knew she shouldn't believe him, but like a true enabler, Grace always trusted him when he said he was going to try. She turned in his arms and gazed up at him hopefully. "I'm not going anywhere," she promised him. "I told them that I wouldn't tour anymore, that I only wanted to dance in Sydney. I am staying here to help you get through this, but you have got to start helping yourself. I can't stand watching you hurt like this, Zach. You were there for me when I just wanted to tear my life apart and now that the situation is reversed, I'm hoping you will do what I should have done and just let me help."

He thought momentarily to that day in the studio, how lost she had been when she had kissed him without reason or abandon. "I know, Amazing Gracie, I know," he whispered against her temple as he used his favorite nickname for her. "Just don't give up on me, on us, okay? I couldn't take it."

"Oh, Zach," she sighed sadly, reaching up to trail a finger of his cheek. He was a little boy lost, and as much as she hated the drinking and the depression, she loved the part of him that she knew loved her. "Get that shower and then we'll go meet Christian and the director. We're going to figure this out and then we're going to get you back into shape. I have waited my entire professional career to dance with you, and the piece that you've worked out was made for the two of us. Christian is going to help us. You'll see, it will be perfect."

Then and there, Zach decided to believe her promise based on the simple fact that she did. A quick shower and a long meeting later, the director had somehow agreed to let him not only create but also star in the original piece that he had built with Grace in mind. Three months later, thanks to a lot of long hours in the studio and Christian's constant coaching, he debuted the piece with his favorite ballerina to a sold-out audience at the Sydney Opera House. There would be relapses and hiccups along the way and even for a little white after, but because she never gave up on him, neither did he. Zach had saved Grace once upon a time, but she was the one to save him in the end.


	43. Grace & Christian

_Your parade of dishonesty has shown me sides of you I never knew and want to know. _  
_"Push Me Away" - The Last Goodnight_

"Grow up, Grace."

The blonde whirled around and looked coldly at the brooding ballet boy in front of her. It was the night after that disaster of a party, the one where she had pushed a cake into the pool and told her former friends that she couldn't wait to watch them rip each other apart. Christian Reed had barely ever spoken to her outside of a group setting, and she couldn't fathom why he thought it appropriate to approach her now. With her defenses already up and a mischievous glint in her eye, she advanced on him quickly until she was standing mere inches from him just so she could prove something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?"

Christian rolled his eyes. The blonde was trying to be contrary and mean and rebellious, but it wasn't anything that wasn't a dime a dozen with trust fund brats like her. He knew that type of girls, the ones that usually wanted to slum it with him just to get back at their fathers. Even if her dancing was something special, Grace's attitude was not. She was just a frightened little girl who wanted a little attention, and he was fed up with it.

"Enough, Grace. Enough with the attitude, enough with the fake rebellion and enough feeling sorry for yourself. It's just enough. I've had enough."

She raised her right eyebrow and leered at him suggestively. If he was going to make commandments toward her, she was going to pretend that she found it appealing and make him uncomfortable in return. Besides, he must have something going for him if both Tara and Kat had gotten tangled up with him. She took another step closer to him and slipped her foot out of her high heel so that she could run it up his leg. It might be fun taking a tumble with him in the sheets. She'd get a little satisfaction and stress relief while hurting the two aforementioned girls in the process.

"Like I said, who are you to tell me what to do?"

He bit back his bitter laugh and squared his shoulders with her. He reached down and bracketed her hips, firmly lifting her off the ground so that only her toes grazed the pavement. He walked a few steps forward and planted her back to her feet before returning to his original position some distance away from her. Grace gasped and crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. It was a pathetic attempt at best.

"You are a scared little girl who clearly needs someone to tell them what to do, and since you won't listen to Miss Raine - the one person who really cares about you, you are going to listen to me. Now stop hurting other people like this, Grace, because you're really only hurting yourself."

"You think you know me?"

"My mom died too," he pointed out. "And my own father couldn't bother pay attention too. I don't have anything to do with my brother too. So, yeah, I think I know you because you and I are just alike. It took me awhile to figure this mess out, but I don't have the time or patience to watch you treat everyone like you have been until you work it out for yourself."

"So you're just telling me to stop?"

"Pretty much," he grinned proudly, brushing his fingers off on his shirt in false bravado. "And you are going to listen to me because you know that I care. We don't really know each other and I probably don't have much of a right, but I care."

"Why?"

"Because someone decided to care about me once and that made me want to be different," he shrugged. "I figure that it's time that I pay that forward and care about you when there is really no good reason why I should. Who knows? It might just save your life like it saved mine."

"I'm hardly headed for jail like you were."

"True," he acknowledged, "but you're just as pathetic and just as alone."

Grace looked at him and she wanted to give in. She wanted to believe that she could wake up in a few weeks and have everything be different. She wanted to know that someone cared. And then she thought about her father and the lifetime of false hope and knew that she had to protect her heart because no one else would.

"No thanks, Reed," she bit out before spinning on her heel and walking away.

Christian watched after her, hoping that she would turn back around and realize what she had said. She had all the potential in the world to be this really great dancer, but she pretty much a disaster of a person. It was nearly impossible to love a person who didn't love themselves; Christian should know, he had been one of them. However, s she disappeared out of sight, he knew that it wasn't up to him to fix her now. He had tried, and Grace would live another day to become someone else's problem.


	44. Christian & Zach

_This is the healing from my pain. This is the wonderful mistake.  
__"The Morning of the Rain" – Jonathan Jackson_

Christian Reed was a tortured artist, the brooding bad boy who made it when he clearly shouldn't have had a chance in the first place. Or at least that's what he liked to believe when he was standing beneath the hot spotlight to a packed house at one of the Academy recitals and later with the Company. He wasn't like the other students at the school, the ones with doting parents and generous discretionary incomes. He was basically the orphan that should have ended up in jail after a string of bad decisions. No one except Kayla really cared what he did in those days anyhow. It didn't really matter what happened to him.

That changed when an old man with kind eyes and incredible patience took a chance on him. He had auditioned for his mom in the first place but had turned it down out of his own selfish fear. He knew that he had some raw talent but had never thought he actually belonged there. That lack of confidence had plagued him all of First Year when he would pretend that he didn't care what happened. He wanted to be a rebel for the sake of self-preservation until Sammy and Tara pushed him to want something more. Throw Kat, Ethan and even Abigail into the mix and the Academy quickly became his home. Those people became his family, Miss Raine and Mr. Kennedy were like his parents.

He had nearly given up home when Mr. Kennedy had left, but to find out that he had been replaced by Miss Raine had given him some hope. She still pushed him hard but he knew that she believed in him. She was also smart enough to bring Zach on to work with the Second Year students, and Christian had finally found the mentor he so desperately needed. The man believed in him from the start and saw right through Christian. He worked with him throughout the Prixe despite that minor setback, the one he found out later had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Grace.

However, all of that had been a long time ago, and now, the aforementioned blonde, the only one who'd ever been as really messed up as him, was helping Zach get better. Christian didn't evne want to try to figure out what was going on there, but he was willing to do whatever it took when she called. His mentor had fallen far since he had lost his wife. Christian knew what it felt like to lose the person that mattered most, the one who still gave a damn whether the rest of the world did or not.

"Come on, Zach, get up on that back leg. Really use it to support your weight," Christian instructed him evenly as he stood next to him. The two of them were carbon copies in form in the mirror. "Nice lines, your arms are looking great."

Christian knew that Zach knew the moves. He had been the one to imagine them in the first place, the one to want to bring them to life. It would be a beautiful piece featuring him with Grace. They just had to get it perfect first. "How's my arch?" Zach asked, examining his own back in the glass in front of him. He flexed his calf automatically before turning slowly. "I'm going to be sore later."

"The best kind of ache," Christian reminded him before pulling out of his own pose so that he could rearrange Zach's hands. "Perfect, just like that. Keep them soft."

After a few more minutes, Zach called it quits for the day and headed for his treasured bottle of water, this thing that he was always caring around with him now that he no longer indulged in whiskey and beer. "Thank you for your help. I know it's been a lot of extra hours and that you're busy with the Company production. I hope you know I appreciate it."

"You've done the same for me," Christian managed between greedy gulps from his own water bottle. "You've got this, man. Grace looks great, and you've come so far. Try not to stress out so much. They're going to love you."

Zach nodded as if he didn't really believe Christian. "I know that the choreo is good, I'm just not sure that I'm strong enough to pull it off now. I have this image of what it's supposed to look in my head, but I'm never the one dancing it. It's always been you."

"You were made for this piece, Zach, it's all you."

"Or maybe it's us…" Zach's voice trailed off as he started to scrounge around in his bag desperately. He fell to the floor with a yellow legal pad and started working out changes immediately. Twenty minutes later, he came up with a split role that had Christian dancing half of the lead role. It became about a younger and older version of the same character within the span of a few moments, and Christian had to admit that it was kind of genius even if he didn't really want to take away from Zach. It gave the piece more depth, more of a story. "You know that you have to do this for me."

Any of Christian's vain attempts at turning it down would immediately be stopped by a guilt trip from Grace. Besides, it would be fun dancing this with Zach, and he had partnered with Grace during Third Year. He had a break in his schedule coming up where they could workshop it before the piece made its debut in early winter. "I do already know the steps," he finally agreed with a wide smile. A lot of people cared what happened to him these days, and he knew that alone was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to him.


	45. Tara & Ben & Abigail

_Now matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.  
"A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" - Cinderella_

"I never expected you to choose her."

Ben looked up from the cup of coffee in front of him with tears in his eyes. This had been a hard year, the hardest of life, quite a feat considering he was a cancer survivor. They had lost Sammy near the beginning of it, and now he was losing Tara toward its conclusion. It was far from what he had planned when he had gone ice skating all those months ago, not a care in the world except impressing a pretty girl in his ballet class. He had no way of knowing how this year would change him, how it would change all of them.

"I didn't plan it, Tara. I didn't plan for her," he replied softly. His strong fingers curled around the hot mug in a vain attempt to stop them from shaking. "You wouldn't let me in, and I don't know, she needed me. She needed someone, and you didn't seem to need anyone."

Watching the three girls deal with losing Sammy had been difficult. Kat had thrown herself into her social life, becoming the butterfly she had always been but spending less and less time with people from the Academy. Tara had thrown herself into her dancing, spending countless hours in the studio and building a wall around her that no one could seem to climb over. And Abigail, well, she had just thrown herself toward anything she could cling onto, and in the end, that ended up being Ben.

Abigail was sitting next to him now, mostly silent as she pressed her thigh meaningfully against his. The truth was that he could apologize all day for the secrets that he had kept from Tara, but she still had to hold some of the blame for what had happened. It wasn't just his fault or Abigail's; Tara hadn't seemed to care for months. He had watched as Abigail flailed in her grief, even going as far as to actually reach out to Tara. It wasn't easy for a girl like Abigail, and when her efforts had been thwarted, Ben had made sure that she had someone there. If Tara wasn't going to let him in, he wanted to be there for Abigail. It was the only way any of this felt okay for him.

The truth was that the girls weren't the only ones who had lost their friend. Christian was lost in his head most of the time and Ollie barely spoke to any of them anymore. Ben almost felt like he wasn't as entitled to grieve as the others because he hadn't known Sammy as long or been the object of his affection. He kept his own grief silent, but helping Abigail became a sort of therapy. Listening to her, remembering their friend together, it helped the pieces slowly shift back into place again.

"He stopped being yours a long time ago, Tara," Abigail said finally. She smiled sideways at Ben before she continued on. "I hate how we did this but not that we did it in the first place. The truth is that I was a disaster after Sammy died and you couldn't be bothered to care about any of us. You didn't notice when Kat started drifting away or Christian used his old habits to cope. You just noticed when one of his impacted your rehearsal schedule or got in your way at class. The competitor in me can appreciate where your head was at, but the friend knows that you played your part in this too."

Tara looked up at them incredulously. "I cannot be responsible for making sure that you are okay, Abigail. Aren't you the one who once told your mother that you couldn't make sure she breathed? We've all had our own stuff going on this year, but that doesn't make what you - what you both did - okay. You betrayed me in the worst way possible. You can't use the way I dealt with everything to justify that."

Abigail started to say something but Ben quickly interrupted her. "You're right, nothing we can say could do that," he agreed. "I'm sorry that this happened like it did."

"Great, is that all you have to say?" Tara asked, looking between the two of them. Ben knew she had only agreed to meet them because Miss Rain had spoken with her. With the end of Third Year just around the corner, the school administrator wanted to bring some semblance of harmony amongst the production leads. When neither of them answered, she twirled her key ring around her index finger and stood up. "I'll see you at rehearsal later."

With that, Tara walked away from the sidewalk cafe without bothering to look back. Both Abigail and Ben sat in stunned silence as they watched her retreating back. They had never known her to be so cold. It seemed more like Abigail circa First Year than the warm girl from the countryside who had showed up for that initial audition. Ben didn't see the wide-eyed dreamer he'd met at the beginning of Second Year, that girl who just wanted to fly. All of that was gone, and neither of them was exactly sure what had been left behind.

"I love you," he whispered softly, reaching under the table to squeeze her hand. "I know that was hard."

"You're the one who has to pretend to be in love with her in an hour," Abigail teased him, alluding to their partner dance in Cinderella. "But I love you too, thanks for choosing me."

Ben smiled as he shrugged a little. "A dream is a wish your heart makes, right?"

"Okay, Prince Charming, we better get going. I want to get warmed up before practice."

He reached down and grabbed her toe shoes and her ballet bag. He fingered the worn satin of the slipper before he slid his hand into hers. Abigail might not have been the obvious choice but it was the one that was right for him. She was his Cinderella after all.


	46. Tara & Ben & Abigail II

_All the closed eyes start to glisten, but it feels like someone's missing.  
"Someone's Missing" - MGMT_

Tara, Ben and Abigail sat in a perfect row alone in the too-bright waiting room. Every once in awhile, one would look at the five empty seats across from them and realize that they were missing. They were the soul survivors, the only ones to walk away from the accident alive. Ben had broken his left wrist, Tara had a serious gash in her right ankle and Abigail had gotten a minor concussion. Other than that, they were fine. They were perfectly healthy, in fact, according to the team of doctors that had worked on the onslaught of patients that had come in after the crash. That news would have probably meant more if they weren't falling apart inside.

"Do…" Tara's voice trailed off as she looked down at her shoes. They had been brand new only a few hours ago, and now they were caked with mud and something that looked suspiciously like someone else's blood. "Do you think they suffered?"

There hadn't been any tears yet. It was almost eerie, like how it had been after Sammy had died but totally different. The eight of them had been on their way to Byron Beach for a much needed vacation after Third Year. It was supposed to be one of the best days of their lives, and then a trucker with too many hours awake and too little caffeine in his system had fallen asleep behind the wheel and veered into their lane, hitting them head on. It had all happened so fast.

"I don't want to think about it," Abigail said numbly before leaning her head on Ben's shoulder. He reached down and grasped her hand while throwing his other arm around Tara protectively. The police were still waiting to talk to them, but the hospital staff had advised them to give the three teenagers a little time. "I just want to go home and crawl in my bed. This has to be a bad dream."

"A total nightmare," Ben agreed emotionlessly. It just didn't make sense. Things had finally been good between all of them. The girls had forgiven Grace and Kat had taken accelerated classes to catch up with them last holiday break so she could start Third Year with them and Ethan had been back to watch them all graduate. They'd been getting along and were excited for the bright futures that lay ahead. And now, five brilliant ballet lights were extinguished seemingly without a second thought. It was too cruel to be true, right? "How are we going to get back to Sydney?"

"They said something about calling our parents," Tara answered. "I'm sure someone will come along to collect us, right?"

"I have to go see Ethan's parents," Abigail realized suddenly. The two of them had been so close, more in love than Ben had ever seen any two people love each other. "And T has to call Christian's brother, and Ben, you have to come with me because Kat…My God. Who is going to tell Grace's dad? And Ollie's parents? Miss Raine needs to know."

Ben squeezed her fingers to help calm her down. The two of them had become close after being forced into many awkward family situations with Karamakovs. Ben had spent the better part of this year attached at the hip with Kat. Tara and Christian had given their relationship the fourth or fifth go two months into classes. They were this little family, and as the last guy left, he felt responsible for keeping what was left together.

"It's like were the last people alive after an apocalypse," Tara murmured.

A week later, the three of them were still feeling like the only ones in their little world. No one else got what it was like for them. There had been a memorial service at the Academy in lieu of forcing them to attend five different funerals. That was when Tara had finally broken down. Abigail hadn't lost it until the policemen had shown her photographs of the mangled eight-passenger van where her friends had taken their last breath. Seeing Abigail sobbing hysterically on a policeman's arm had brought Ben over the edge, and he had spent the next sixteen hours asleep in Abigail's bed while she rubbed his back. Tara slept across the foot of the mattress. They refused to leave each other. They knew they would have to inevitably, but it still felt like too much to bear.

It's only when Tara's father finally puts his foot down that she packs her sad little duffel bag and heads back to the farm. There are tears in the driveway, the three of them wrapped up in a pathetic huddle until her mother tugged her toward the yellow El Camino that would sweep her back to her safety net and away from her only remaining friends. Abigail and Ben just sat their silently for a long time after she left, not looking at the sky or the ground or each other. They just stared blankly down the road long after the taillights had faded, hoping somehow that this was it.

"You can't leave me," she said finally, after the sun had gone down and the streetlights were starting to come on. He looked over without nodding, but she seemed to understand his unspoken promise. He reached for her hand just as he had that day in the hospital and squeezed her little fingers in his. Finally, she took a deep breath and scrambled to her feet. "C'mon, Benster, let's go to bed."

Ben never really did leave Abigail after that. The two of them spent the better part of the next year following each other around, him dancing in the company in Berlin when she was a featured lead in a piece that Ethan had actually choreographed for her before he died and then her taking a choral spot in London when debuted with Tara in their patented pas de deux number. She went wherever they went after that, and in a string of incredible good luck, they all managed to end up with decent offers from Sydney a few days before the anniversary of the accident.

"Is there something more going on there?" Tara asked one day after Ben kissed Abigail on the forehead on his way to practice. She blushed and shrugged noncommittally, but Tara knew that was as good as a yes. She herself still wasn't quite over Christian, but she was happy that her friends were helping each other move on. They were still the only ones who could ever really understand. "They'd be happy for you, Abs."

"I still miss him every day," she said softly. "I don't want to get over him. I still love him so much, Tara. Ethan was my soulmate, as silly and as insipid as that seems. But Ben cares about me and I care about him, and right now, that's what I need the most." Abigail waited a moment before she reached over to hug her best friend. "And you, I need you. The three of us, whatever happens, I need this. They'd want us to stay together."

"Then we will," Tara pledged, and right then and there, she knew that they would do anything to make it true. The years went by, and eventually, Abigail and Ben got married with Tara as their mutual Best Man and Maid of Honor. They left six chairs empty in the front row for the people that should have been there but couldn't. By that time, Tara had ended up reconnecting with Shawn of all people, and they would get married a year later. Ben and Abigail named their first child Ethan Christian, and Tara's daughter was Katrina Grace. And each year on the anniversary of the accident, no matter where they were in the world, the three of them would get together somewhere and let six balloons go in memory of the five friends they had lost that day and the one that had left them even before then.


	47. Damien & Tara

_Just wait, everything will be okay, even when you're feeling like it's going down in flames.  
"People Like Us" – Kelly Clarkson_

"What is it this time?"

Tara looked up from her magazine at the doctor's office and smiled at the familiar face. "My fibula," she answered, tapping her left ankle against the plaster cast on her right calf demonstratively. It had been a bad fall after her new partner hadn't quite gotten his footing two weeks during a dress rehearsal. She'd had surgery the next day and had been on crutches ever since. "It broke in three places. I'm supposed to see how it's healing today."

"And what's the expected prognosis?" Damien Lang as he sat down next to her.

"Well, if the pain is any indication, I'm guessing that the third time might be the charm," she frowned sadly. She'd had her knee and her back give out on her before, but this time felt different. Even the way her surgeon had looked at her afterward, despite his insistence she had every right to believe that it would be different, told her that she might never get to dance professionally again. "What are you doing in Sydney?"

Damien looked away from her cast and up into her eyes for the first time. Tara Webster had certainly grown up and was quite the beautiful young woman. She was a far cry from that lost adolescent who had misled her classmates back at the Academy into thinking that they were something when they were only mere acquaintances. He saw now why she was the object of many affections back then. She was certainly something to be treasured now.

"Annual checkup," he explained. "I have to come in once a year to see how things are going with my injury. It doesn't get much use these days other than working on the farm and a little dancing here and there in classes, but it's enough that my physio wants to keep an eye on it."

"Classes?"

"I'm teaching at the studio back home," he smiled. "Just intermediate classes with some of the kids but I love it. I'm actually pretty decent, and it's better than not dancing at all."

Just then, Tara's doctor announced her name, and she left Damien with a polite smile and wave to follow her back. The news is what Tara expected, and she almost feels sorry for the poor woman who seems so distraught over having to deliver the bad news to her. She knew that the chances were slim and that there are some breaks you just can't come back from. The fact that she had healed twice successfully before was a miracle, and she was thankful that she'd had the opportunity to dance for the Australian Ballet at all.

"Well?" Damien asked when she came back out, and Tara was surprised to find him waiting. She only shook her head before falling back into her same empty seat while she waited for her father to come collect her. "I'm sorry, Tara. I know that's hard news to get."

"I knew," she replied softly. "Even before they told me, I knew that this was it. I'm going to go back home and take some time off, figure out what's next. Who knows, maybe I'll even end up teaching classes with you or something."

Damien smiled thoughtfully and nodded. "I think the girls would like that. The famous Tara Webster returning home to share her talents with a new breed of dancers," he mused. "I know it doesn't seem like it now, but it will be good for you eventually. They look up to you, and you'll still get to be around ballet."

"And that's the part that will hurt the most," she predicted. "Seeing them get to do what I love most."

"At first," he agreed, "but then you learn to love them more than you ever loved dance. That part makes it easier. And if you get lost, I'll be around to help you out."

So Tara agreed to come to Damien's class with the six and seven-year-olds that next Monday and ended up helping put together a few pieces of choreography for their upcoming recital. She grew further away from the national ballet stage and closer to teaching a group of kids learn to fall in love with something that had always been her greatest passion. The more they fell in love with ballet, the more she happened to fall in love with Damien. By the time his next annual checkup rolled around, she had taken over the preteen class on her own and a sparkly ring was sitting on her left hand.


	48. Grace & Christian & Tara

_Maybe there's beauty in goodbye. There's just no reason left to try._  
_"Nobody Wins" - The Veronicas_

"You know that this is a bad idea." Christian looked up from where he was stretching outside the dorms, his long legs in front of him. Abigail was standing there, hand on her hip, gazing down at him. "I know what you're doing and who you're doing it with. I told you last year that I'd kill you if you hurt Kat, but the same goes for Tara. Quit playing this game, Reeder. She deserves better from you this year."

The petite brunette strode off to where Ollie was waiting for her to go to jazz. The two of them fell into step together easily, and Christian wished that his own partnership was as easy this year. However, as soon as Miss Raine had decided that he should abandon Abigail in favor of Grace, he had known that Third Year was going to be anything but simple. Not that things were ever easy at the Academy, at least not when it came to romance.

He should be on cloud nine right now. After six months of trying to get Tara back, she had finally agreed to start going out with him again. Ben had broken up with her three months ago when he had been offered an early contract with the Company. It had been an amicable resolution between the two, and Ben had even been as kind as to give Christian his blessing before he caught a plane to meet up with the tour in Vienna. He had given her a couple weeks to properly mourn before he asked her out. Tara said no and kept saying no for the next four months. She had finally agreed to go for coffee two months ago and then promptly told him that they needed to relearn how to be friends first.

Of course, in the mean time, Christian was still a guy. He was a guy with needs and Grace was there offering and well, it was the easy thing to do. It was uncomplicated at first, just as Grace had promised when she'd laid out the terms. Christian should have known better, however, because it was Grace after all. She knew that he was still trying to be with Tara and that the country girl wasn't likely to give him anything more than a smile any time soon. She'd capitalized on that and offered up some heated pashing. When pashing had turned into something more, Christian had let himself pretend that they were both okay with it being without strings. He had been right up until he ended it two weeks prior when Tara had told him that she was ready to try again. He had told Grace quietly after curfew and left her without even a single kiss for the first time in months.

He had stupidly thought he could walk away without looking back, but he had sort of forgotten that he still had to dance with Grace. Having her in his arms in class or in performance just reminded him (them, really) of what had happened, and he felt guilty. Grace didn't exactly help matters when she decided that she basically wanted to hold it over his head. He'd been stressed and had too many drinks last weekend when Tara had gone back to the farm to visit her parents. He had ended up kissing Grace in the alley behind the club and Abigail had unfortunately been the one to catch them.

"Hey, partner," Grace announced as she threw herself at his feet. She was wearing a criminally short red dress, her lips painted boldly to match. "I was thinking if you weren't busy that we could get a quick pre-class workout in."  
He caught her insinuation right away. "I told you that wasn't happening again, Grace. Look, I'm sorry if I misled you last weekend, but we were both out of our minds. I'm with Tara now, and that never should have happened."

"But it has, Christian, a lot," she reminded him. He saw a flash of hurt in her eyes before she buried it beneath her biting wit. "Besides, I know Holly Hobbie still isn't giving you any."

"That's none of your business, Grace," he shot back.

"I beg to differ, Reed," she sneered beneath her breath. Her eyes burned into his. "It is every bit my business because you're the stupid one who let me fall in love with you."

She stood up and walked off then, and he pretended that he didn't hear the quiet way she was crying as she disappeared. He was always doing this, putting himself in the middle of these screwed-up love triangles with Tara. First Ethan and then Kat, he had to think that their relationship didn't seem to work unless it had the drama of a third person. Maybe that was a sign, he thought, maybe it said something about them.

Tara was sitting on the couch when he came back from his run. He smiled at her as he swiped at the back of his neck with a towel. "It's a hot one," he muttered before retrieving a bottle from the fridge. "What are you up to?"

"Just enjoying a little peace and quiet before class. Want to hang out?"

He looked down at her on the couch and shook his head. "We actually should talk."

"Oh?"

"Let me grab a shower and we can take a walk, okay?"

He came back downstairs freshly changed a few minutes earlier to find Grace and Tara chatting softly on the couch. Fear crept over him as he came into the living room. "What's going on here?"

"I was just telling Tara about my father," she whispered softly. "He...there was an accident."

He thought maybe it was a lie for a split second, and then she brought her eyes up to meet his. She couldn't fake something like that, not when it came to her dad. Christian sat down next to her immediately, Tara forgotten. "Gracie." The nickname, the one he only used when they were alone together, slipped out of his mouth unnoticed. Grace fell apart as he drew her into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder and started to sob. "Shh, hey, I got you."

"I'll go get Miss Raine," Tara offered, and Christian thought not for the first time what a good girl Tara was. She deserved better than him.

At some point, their teacher came back and Christian managed to transfer the bawling blonde into her arms. Tara led him out of the dorm wordlessly and didn't say much as they started to wander. "She's going to be a mess for awhile," Tara said softly. "Her father was the only family she had left. She's going to need you. You're the only one who gets what it's like to lose a parent."

Christian ran his fingers through his hair. "Tara, I need to tell you something."

"You've been seeing her."

"You knew?"

Tara shook her head slightly. "Only suspected," she replied. "I found one of your shirts in her laundry last week, and when I questioned her about it, she said you left it behind in practice. When I couldn't figure out why you wouldn't be wearing a shirt to rehearse, I put two and two together. It pretty much was confirmed when you were the first one she asked about after she got the phone call."

"I...we're not together."

"Do you want to be?"

"Not really," he told her honestly. "I mean, I think Grace needs me as a friend, but we wouldn't be good together."

"You're not really good at being with anyone, huh?" she asked pointedly. "You know that this is over, right?"

Christian nodded. "I was going to end it anyway," he admitted. "It shouldn't be so hard for us to be together. There shouldn't constantly be a third person caught up in this."

"So you're choosing you?"

He shook his head. "I'm not choosing anyone. I don't even get to win because I don't get what I want any more than Grace or you do."

"And what do you want, Christian?"

He looked up at her and then back at the dorm. "I don't know, Tara." He probably wanted both of them but he wasn't going to say that. Instead, he did the only thing he could do and walked away. In that moment, Christian let them both go.

_**For ailes.**_


	49. Abigail & Ollie

_I wanna hang onto something that won't break away or fall apart like the pieces of my heart._  
_"Globes and Maps" - Something Corporate_

"You like boys, right?"

Ollie glanced across the table at Abigail and grimaced. "Yeah, duh. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you could be my partner this year," she decided. It was just a few weeks before classes were set to start up, and she was fresh off her trip to Barcelona. She'd only seen one of her friends other than Ollie since she got back to Sydney, and that was sort of the problem. "Things have always just been complicated with my other partners and I thought maybe it would work better if I worked with someone who had absolutely no interest in anything romantic with me."

He inspected her for a moment. "I don't know, Armstrong, you are quite beautiful. You might turn me straight just yet," he teased her. As cool as Abigail was, they both knew there was absolutely no chance of that happening. He was out and proud, and he could certainly appreciate the need for a completely platonic partnership. "Yeah, sure, why not? You're almost at my level. With a little work, you'll probably be able to keep up."

And just like that, it was decided. The remaining days of freedom flew by, and by the time classes started up, Abigail was dying to get back into her routine. Kat was in her room again, with Tara down the hall with one of the other girls from Third Year. That changed two weeks later when Grace reappeared from London, and Tara's former roommate came down with a serious case of mono. Grace took up partnership with Christian in the departed girls place, and their little ragtag group was back together again.

Only it wasn't like before, and it wasn't just because Sammy wasn't with them. "Alright, what is up with you?" Ollie asked one afternoon in repertoire when Abigail had flubbed the steps for the third time in a row. "This isn't like you. You're not focused. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," she muttered under her breath, her eyes darting around the room nervously until they landed on someone. Ollie followed her gaze over to a certain brooding dancer and frowned. He shook his head slightly before looking back over at his partner. "Don't say anything, please, I already know."

He waited until after class was dismissed and they were sitting alone at a table in the cafe before he approached her again. "Christian, Abigail, really? So that's why you had to switch partners. You need to tell me what happened...or is it still going on?"

"Sort of, I don't know," she admitted. "I was really messed up after Barcelona because I found out Ethan had been seeing this girl behind my back, and by the time I got back to Sydney, I was pretty set on being self-destructive. Surprisingly, Christian wouldn't indulge my behavior and actually talked me down. We started hanging out, and then a couple of days before I asked you to be my partner, we kissed."

Ollie took a deep breath. "Why are you guys hiding it?"

"Because of Kat and Tara," she revealed. "Look, I know that Tara is with Ben now and is supposed to be over Christian, but the chemistry between those two is sorta just always there. And his breakup with Kat was pretty messy last year, you know that. I don't think she ever really got the closure she wanted."

"So you're hiding this from your two best friends?"

"They're not my best friends," she countered automatically. "They're each others' best friends, there's no room for a third. Besides, I thought you were my best friend. I don't go just telling anyone this. You're my partner, Ol, that means I trust you."

"Then as your partner and your best friend, I think you should just be honest," he told her. "Anything you have to hide to do isn't worth doing at all. If you are worried about hurting them, you probably already are. Hiding it will only make the hurt that much deeper, and I know that you're better than that, Abigail."

Ollie is there the night that she finally tells both Kat and Tara. She's not sure what she expected but it definitely wasn't tears. From both of them, actually, at the same time and between some pretty harsh words. Abigail almost went to Christian's room to tell him what happened, but she didn't want to involve Ben or let her boyfriend see her like this. Instead, she ended up knocking on Ollie's door and crawling into his bed so that they could talk late into the night. He woke her up with a cup of coffee and Christian waiting in the hallway.

"Whatever happens, I'm proud of you," Ollie whispered as he kissed her forehead chastely. "I'm gonna send that gorgeous boy of yours in."

"He is gorgeous, isn't he?"

He couldn't help but roll his eyes as he opened the door to let Christian in. He closed it behind him before venturing down the hallway to seek out Kat and Tara. The two girls were holed up in the room that Kat shared with Abigail. He knocked lightly before letting himself in.

"Tara, are you still dating Ben?"

She looked at him strangely and nodded. "You know that we're together."

"And Kat, aren't you still single?"

"Well, yeah," she grumbled.

"In fact, Tara, if I remember correctly, you chose Ben at the end of last year. And Kat, I think you are the one who ended things with Christian," he reminded them. "You both made choices that didn't include him, and with those decisions, you lost the right to feel betrayed. Abigail didn't do anything to either of you except for fall for a boy you two already both liked and then discarded. You've both moved on, so doesn't Christian have that same right too?"

"You don't understand," Tara whined as Kat demanded, "What gives you the right?"

"I understand that if Ben knew you were this upset, he'd be very confused why his girlfriend is fighting for her supposed ex," Ollie pondered aloud. "And I guess what gives me the right is that Abigail is my best friend and I've watched her cry at the thought of hurting the two of you. Christian likes her and she likes him too. Get over it."

Christian was standing in the hallway when he finally came out of the room. "I came to talk to them, but I think you pretty much covered it."

"I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

"No way, man, remind me to never cross you."

"You got it," Ollie said with a little chuckle. He looked over at the other man seriously. "If you hurt her, I will make sure you pay. I put my neck out there for you back there, but let's be clear, it had absolutely nothing to do with you. That was all for Abigail, and if you break her heart, nothing will be able to save you."

"I hear you," Christian promised. "I don't plan to lose Abigail."

At the end of Third Year, Abigail was handed two offers to dance. She received one to dance in Auckland where her boyfriend would be and one to stay in Sydney with her best friend. It only took one moment for her to decide on the National Ballet because as much as she loved Christian, she only had one dance partner. He understood, of course. He invested in a credit card with a great frequent flyer program, while Ollie and Abigail proceeded to take the ballet world by storm.

_For witty._


	50. Ethan & Abigail & Ben

_I haven't seen you in ages, sometimes I find myself wondering where you are. For me, you'll always be eighteen and beautiful and dancing away with my heart.  
"Dancin' Away With My Heart" – Lady Antebellum_

Ethan sat in the front row of the packed auditorium, just in those shadows where the spotlight wouldn't let her seen him. Abigail didn't know that he was coming. He hadn't spoken to her in so many years, but when he heard that the Australian Ballet was in town for a production of La Bayadere, he had snatched up a single ticket so that he could watch her perform. She was the prima ballerina with the company now, a dream that she had wanted since she had first put on a tutu at all of three years old. Ethan liked to think that he had played a small role in that once upon a time, but watching her now, he knew that it was always going to be her destiny all along.

He waited in the bustling hallway after the final curtain had called. Everyone at the theater knew him since he was one of the principle choreographers with the Barcelona Ballet, working with the likes of Angel Corella. He smiled at one of the stage hands who wandered by with a cart filled with bright floral bouquets. One of the artistic directors from Sydney motioned for him to come on back. He didn't have time to wonder if she knew he was coming or not.

"Ben, darling, can you get my robe from behind the door?" When there was no answer, Abigail turned around from her mirrored table and went still. "Ethan, what are you doing here?"

He was only quiet for a moment as she flew out of her chair and over to where he was. He wrapped his arms around her and embraced her tightly. "Hello, Abigail."

"I had no idea that you were coming," she said excitedly, coming back in to kiss his cheek chastely. "We would have made arrangements or something if we'd known." There was a knock at the door then, interrupting the somewhat intimate reunion. Ben popped his head through the door and let himself into the dressing room. "Ben, honey, look who it is!"

"Ethan, my man!" Ben exclaimed excitedly as he came over to shake Ethan's hand. The two of them smiled amicably before Ben slipped beside his wife and wrapped his arm around her waist. "What did you think?"

Ethan smiled genuinely. "You guys danced wonderfully together."

"Thank you," Abigail smiled, blushing slightly under the compliment. She wasn't sure what it was about Ethan, but he would always be that star of Third Year for her. She'd always know how much a compliment from him meant.

"It's hard to believe that this will be our eleventh season dancing together," Ben added. They had been dancing together ever since Third Year when Christian had broken his ankle skateboarding and Tara had asked to be paired off with Ollie after the breakup. "I think we make a pretty good team still. What do you think, Abs?"

"We're a good team," she confirmed with a genuine smile at her husband. "Did you need something when you came in?"

"Oh, yeah," Ben replied, smacking his hand to his forehead playfully. "Some of the others are going for tapas and wanted to see if we wanted to come with. Ethan, you should totally come too."

Abigail sighed tiredly. "I think I am going to turn in early, we have some changes to run through in the morning," she reminded him. He always performed better on little sleep, while she needed at least a full eight hours to even function. "Why don't you go out with them, though? I am done for the night, and I know it's been awhile since you've hung out with everyone."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure," she promised before turning her gaze on Ethan. "You should still go though if you want."

"I fly out for Moscow in the morning," he shook his head. "Two of my dancers are guesting there, so I'm flying in to help put together a new piece for them."

The three of them made polite small talk for a few more minutes until one of the male principals came along to fetch Ben. He left his wife with a kiss and a promise not to get back to the hotel too late. Abigail returned to her vanity to finish taking off her stage makeup while Ethan filled her in on the latest pursuits of Christian and Kat. She hadn't really kept up with either of them after they had disappeared to San Francisco to dance there. She still saw Tara whenever they were in Europe now that she was dancing in Berlin. Grace was still in London but visited Sydney occasionally now that Ms. Raine was getting older. Ollie had pretty much disappeared, but she got the sporadic email that let her know that he was still in Beijing.

Once she had emerged from the dressing room in her black yoga pants and a Sydney ballet hooded jumper, she told him that she had a car waiting downstairs to take her back to her hotel. "Would you like a ride?"

"If you don't mind, maybe I could walk you back. It's not far, and it'd give us a little time to catch up," he offered. "I can grab a cab from there to take me home." They made it all of two blocks before Ethan grabbed her wrist and stopped her beneath a streetlight. "Whatever happened with us, Abigail?"

"Ethan, I am not doing this with you," she warned him. "You know what happened."

"I don't!"

"You left," she reminded him. "We had a great summer together here and you told me that you loved me. You came back to Sydney with me for three days and then you left without a single word. What did you think would happen, Ethan? You knew me! You knew how I would react and you still did it."

He raked his fingers through his hair. "I had to work."

"And you couldn't say goodbye? You couldn't call?"

"I wanted you to be able to enjoy your last year at the Academy. I knew that you wouldn't be able to do that if I was holding you back."

"I loved you, Ethan," she shot back. She had worked for so long to repress all of this, and here he was, dredging it all back up. "I loved you and you left me, and I wasn't going to fight for something that clearly wasn't there. Ben was there for me every single day. After I got injured, he was there to hold my hand in rehab and he waited until I was better before he would even considering dancing with someone else. He built his entire career – his entire life – around me. Maybe it's not fair, but I needed someone like that. You were too much of a flight risk for me to rely on."

"That's not fair."

"Why did you come here tonight, Ethan?" she demanded. "Why, after so long, did you just show up now?"

"Because I miss you, Abigail," he said softly. "I've never really stopped loving…"

"Stop it, Ethan, stop it now," she snapped. She held up her left hand and her very generous and dazzling wedding ring set glimmered in the amber glow. "I am a married woman. I love my husband. I love Ben, not you. "

Abigail took off running then, and Ethan never saw her again. He still followed her career from afar, reading the reviews from his hometown paper and looking up videos online. He knew that she had a son and then twin girls. He knew that she retired after her daughters were born and ended up teaching at the Academy while Ben finished out two more seasons in Sydney. She took over when Miss Raine retired and he came on when Zach left to teach in New York. He sometimes wondered if she ever looked him up, but somehow he knew that she never did.


	51. Ethan & Kat II

_You wait for the sun but it never quite comes. Some kind of message comes through to you, and it says to you love when you can, cry when you have to, be who you must._  
_"Part of the Plan" - Dan Fogelberg_

Kat hated hospitals. She hated the sterile smell and the blank white walls and the itchy paper gowns. She hated the way everyone always looked sad and how the coffee was always terrible in the waiting room. She hated how the magazines were always a few months behind and the puzzles were always already filled out and the vending machine never had her favorite kind of crisps. She hated pretty much everything about them, and now, she spent nearly every day there.

It had started with a routine check-up. An abnormality on a test resulted in a full battery of tests and extensive blood work. The official diagnosis was Hodgkin's lymphoma, which basically meant that her white blood cells were messed up. There was a lot of very specific medical terminology that the doctors had thrown at her in those first days, but it all came down to one simple thing: she was sick.

Her parents were gone. They'd died in a tragic plane crash off the Gold Coast three years ago, one of those huge travesties that makes international news for days. Her friends were sprinkled all over the globe, so the only person Kat could really count on was her only brother, her one family member left in all the world. Ethan flew in from St. Petersburg the day after she got the diagnosis and had been to every appointment with her. He made her soup when she couldn't keep anything down, fixed her tea when she couldn't sleep, cleaned up the apartment when she was too tired to even sit up.

"I hate what this is doing to you," he told her one day when they were at the hospital for her daily chemotherapy appointment. There still four more weeks before she would get a brief break, only to have six weeks of radiation to follow. She was slowly wasting away, and though she hadn't come out and said it, they both knew that she wasn't getting better. She was tired and cranky all the time, perpetually nauseous and sick.

"I hate everything about this," she agreed. It wasn't fair that she had lost her life and that Ethan had to give up us to take care of her. "You know that you don't have to stay, Ethan. I know that you need to get back to the Company."

He did the same thing he always did when she said things like that. He reached up and smoothed the blonde hair away from her eyes before readjusting the blanket over her lap. That was something she hadn't been prepared for, how cold the chemo made her. Abigail had sent a knitted blanket she had made between Tour stops. Ethan had looked at it for a little too long when the package had arrived. Kat knew that he missed her.

"I want to beat this," she said one night when they were sitting in the living room after dinner. She hadn't even been able to keep down three soda crackers, and Ethan had quickly lost his appetite after having to clean up the hallway and the bathroom. Most of her long blonde hair was gone now, and Tara had taken to sending her silk scarves she found all over Greenwich Village now that she was with the NYC Ballet. "And when I go into remission, we're going to take a long vacation and see all her friends."

"We can go to Singapore to see Ollie and Tokyo to see Abigail," he mused dreamily. "Tara is in the States and I think Christian is still in Prague. Grace just sent an email that she is dancing with Ballet West in Utah, and Ben is back in Paris."

"And I haven't danced in more than a year," she deduced. "I'm never going to get to dance again, not professionally. What am I going to do with my life, Ethan?"

He took a deep breath. "Let's just focus on getting you better."

Ethan hated to think too far ahead. He had gotten up hope six months earlier when the doctors had started talking about a stem cell transplant. He had undergone all kinds of tests to see if he could possibly be a match. Kat had been so optimistic, but then the oncologists reversed their latest status report and she had undergone such strong chemo that month that she slept something like twenty hours a day. She even had to be hospitalized for malnutrition because she couldn't keep anything solid down.

"I miss coffee," she declared. "And chocolate cake. And sex, man, I miss sex."

"Kat!"

"Sorry, brother of mine, but no one wants to kick it with a baldy," she remarked numbly. "Besides, I know that you have to be wanting to get you some action now that Abigail is single again."

"Missing Christian?"

"It's not his fault he couldn't handle this," she shrugged sadly. That breakup was rarely acknowledged, and Ethan still hated that the guy had broken up with his baby sister two weeks after she found out she was sick. He was offered a place in Prague and didn't want to do the timing. Ethan knew he just didn't want to feel guilty for leaving. It was part of the reason he had stopped pursuing Abigail. "I love you for being here."

"You're my Kitty Kat. I'll always be here."

Kat died in her sleep on a Tuesday night in November, almost two years exactly from the day she was diagnosed. More people had shown up by then. Abigail had come as soon as Ethan had called, giving up her place in Tokyo to help take care of her friend and the man she loved. Tara came soon after, calling Grace immediately to tell her how serious it had gotten. The two girls stayed with their companies but flew to Sydney as often as possible. Ollie made regular treks too, and he was actually the first one to know that she was going. When she started talking about seeing Sammy on a regular basis, he started to prepare Ethan for the end. He could only tell his friend that there was no way to prepare for that.

Christian came eventually as well, and Kat did her very best not to cry. It was surprisingly Ben who she was happiest to see, and he pretty much never left her side once he came home to visit her at the beginning of March. He had injured his knee and decided that maybe it was time to retire. He asked her to marry him in August because she had always dreamed of being married, and the girls had all pitched in for a 24-hour nurse for a weekend so they could have a honeymoon outside the confines of the apartment. Those last weeks were spent with Abigail, Ethan, Ben and Kat living in perfect harmony. And then one day, she took her last breath and they were just sort of left there alone.

The memorial service was small and intimate, just as Kat had requested when she had spoken to Abigail about it. Ollie had left first to catch a plane to meet his tour in South America, and Christian and Grace both had to head to Europe for work. Tara was able to stay a few more days, but she eventually had to get back to New York. Ben stayed for a few more weeks after that but decided that he needed to move out on his own. He rented a little place near his parents but called Ethan often enough to check in. Only Abigail stayed, but it never quite felt like enough. He still missed his sister every day and probably always would, but when Abigail started having dreams about her three months after they got married on a blustery June afternoon, he finally reach a turning point.

A little angel with big blue eyes and a halo of blonde hair game soon after, and Ethan knew that they had to name her Katrina.


	52. Christian & Ethan

_I will follow the trail to tomorrow with my loneliness, with sorrow, all through the night._  
_"Boxing Day" - Blink 182_

Ethan watches Christian carefully after Sammy dies. He sees him slipping back into his old habits, the ones that kept him distant from the others and perpetually in trouble. He starts skipping classes and won't talk to Tara or Kat. The final straw for Ethan is when he leaves Abigail hanging for a partner dance they have two weeks into Third Year. The summer away with his father hadn't done much to realign his priorities, and Ethan's girlfriend seemed to be the one suffering most from her partner's selfish ways.

"Dude, you have got to get it together," Ethan told him harshly one afternoon when they were supposed to be out running. It wasn't fun and competitive like it had been when Ethan was still at the Academy. Even Christian could see that the choreographer was only doing it out of a sense of duty. Abigail had asked him to talk to Christian since no one else could get through to him. They were all starting to get desparate. "My sister is constantly worried about you, Tara says you won't even speak to her at all, and Abigail nearly failed last week because you couldn't be bothered to show up. I know that you're going through stuff, but they deserve better than you're giving them."

"We can't all be perfect like you, Karmakov," Christian bit out bitterly.

"You think I'm perfect?" the blonde scoffed. "I am sleeping on the floor of the room my girlfriend shares with my sister because I can't afford my own apartment and I'm too proud to ask my father for help. I only came back to Sydney because Barcelona didn't want me and Abigail did. You call that perfection? I call it disaster."

"Everyone I love leaves," Christian said seemingly out of nowhere. "My mom and then Sammy, you know? I haven't seen my brother in ages, and my dad couldn't bother to stick around when I was a kid. I guess history was bound to repeat itself too because he left me stranded in Byron Bay when he got an offer for some custom work in Melba."

Ethan suddenly understood that it wasn't just losing Sammy that had him in such a funk, but rather than comfort his friend, he just listened. Guys like Christian needed to work things out for themselves, and interfering now would only send him packing. "And I usually talked to Sammy about these things because he was my family, you know? He was more like my brother these past two years than my actual brother. I just miss him, man, and it's not fair. He should be here. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn't it have been me? I probably deserve it for all the things that I've done."

"Okay, man, you can't talk like that," Ethan interrupted him. He knew that they were headed for dangerous territory, and he needed to get in Christian's headspace before he could completely drag himself down. "You are not alone. You might have been when you came to the Academy, but those days are long gone. Whether you want them to or not, these people care about you. Kat, Tara, Ben, Abigail, Ollie - they aren't just your classmate. They're your friends, your family, just like Sammy was. You have Kayla, and I'm your friend. We love you, dude. Even Zach and Miss Raine, you have people on your side."

"It's not the same."

Ethan knew that he was right. It would never be the same. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to go through life without Kat. Sammy might not have been his biological brother, but Christian loved him as such just as Ethan loved his sister.

"Maybe not, but I have it on pretty good authority that I'm an excellent brother," Ethan countered. "I'll be your brother. I have really great references."

It's not much, but it's a start. It's that little subtle push that Christian needs to make himself start believing that he still matters to people. He takes an out-of-program hip hop with Kayla and goes fishing with Kat and visits the farm with Tara for a long weekend. He takes a roadtrip up the coast to go surfing with Ben and Ollie and finally apologizes to Abigail with a new pilates mat and high scores on their retry. And he runs with Ethan every single day, just the two of them back like it was in the beginning.


	53. Ollie & Abigail & Ethan

_Right here right now__ under the stars, I promise you my heart 'cause it starts tonight!  
"Tonight" - TobyMac_

"What happened?"

Ollie came down the spiral staircase outside the dorms to find Abigail sobbing into her arms. It had been a couple hours since she had shuffled into class later, babbling something about hating customs and trying to figure out what she had missed out on. Her friends had tried to ask her about Ethan, but she had only sent a cold glare in Tara's general direction before pressing on with her warm-up. When she had refused to answer any questions after rehearsal, Ollie had been elected as the group's official representative to figuring out Abigail's latest drama.

"Let's just say Barcelona didn't end as positively as I would have liked," Abigail answered while wiping at her eyes with the corner of her pale pink crossover. "Ethan and I, we broke up this morning. Well, yesterday morning, I kind of lost a day somewhere. I just…I didn't think that's how it would go."

He sat down at her feet and listened as she continued. "It's just that after Sammy and everything last year, Ethan was kind of my safe place. He stopped judging me and accepted me in all my screwed-up glory," she explained. "I wanted to make it work with Ethan."

"Did he tell you why?"

"The distance," she answered sullenly. "I suppose he's right. We're going to both be so busy this year, now even more so that I want to focus on getting one of these chorus spots. And he's really starting to get good, Ollie, you should see him! He's so talented, you know, I wish he could see it the same way. It's just bad timing."

He had never heard her thoughts so disorganized. It was clear that Abigail really cared about Ethan. In his brief time in being around Kat's brother, he suspected that the fond feeling was quite mutual. Ollie also knew a thing or two about missed opportunities. "So take the year to figure it out," he suggested. "Maintain the friendship but keep your head in dance. If you're supposed to end up where he is – or with him – at the end of the year, the hands of fate will take you there. Spain would be lucky to get you, and I'm just the partner to get you there."

"Oh, you are, are you?"

Ollie nodded cockily. "Besides, if we're partnered together, we might get to end up dancing together beyond Third Year. I always thought that I'd sound really good with a Spanish accent."

"I don't think that's how accents work," she laughed as she took his outstretched hand so that he could help her to her feet. She followed Ollie down the sidewalk and toward the studio so they could get started. Christian wasn't coming back, Ethan was staying in Spain and Sammy was gone. Ollie was the only guy she could count on right now.

They spent the next eight months learning each other's habits. They learned how the other's body worked and moved and bent and ached. They learned how to tell a mood from the lift of a shoulder, the twitch of an eye, the extension of a foot. They ate, drank, slept dance, and any moment they weren't in the studio, they were together. By the time the offers began to come in, Abigail and Ollie waited alone together to open their envelopes.

"Sydney, New York, London, Berlin," Ollie rattled off as he separated the letters into two piles.

"Paris, Beijing, New York, Sydney," Abigail read off from her own list.

Ollie smiled. "So New York and Sydney make the short list," he said before picking up the final envelope. He knew that it was the one she was counting on. It was the one they were counting on. Somewhere along the way, sticking with Abigail and her happiness had become very important to Ollie. He wanted them both to land in Spain. It had been months since she had even spoken with Ethan, and there was still a chance that it wouldn't work out. They were acting on blind faith together, and if he didn't like men so much, he was sure he'd be in love with her completely by this point. "You go first."

She pushed a manicured fingernail through the flap and tore it away. A moment later, tears started to stream down her face. He wasn't sure what they meant at first, but a questioning look in her direction led to a slow nod. "I'm in."

Ollie followed suit and hollered with joy a moment later. "We're going to Spain!"


	54. Sammy & Ethan

_You said jump in the boat, man. I said, no, you reach your hand. You said the storms that will come will be more than enough and alone, you cannot win.  
"Anchor" – Satellites & Sirens_

There is one love of Sammy Lieberman's life that none of his friends know about. His exploits with Abigail were well documented, and his friends had been thrown in the middle of his failed relationship with Ollie in the aftermath of his breakup. A couple of people knew about his "muffins for mouse ears" and a couple more knew about the slew of girls that had come at the beginning of Second Year. However, no one except the two people involved knew about the very brief tryst (okay, it was a moment really) that came during that lost summer in Sydney when Sammy's first year at the Academy gave way to his second.

Christian had left Sydney to spend the summer with Tara at the farm. Everyone knew how that had affected a reeling Ethan; his cold demeanor when they got back to the Academy said everything. Far fewer people knew how deeply it had hurt Sammy, even if he was privately professing to Kat that he was "so over it." Despite their different circumstances, the two found themselves in a very similar situation. Somewhere between coffee at the café and swims at the beach, they came to an understanding where they weren't exactly good friends but they could commiserate in their mutual misery without having to worry about judgment.

"Kat is off traversing the coast with Myles, Abigail is away at her retreat and Christian is with Tara at the farm," Sammy grumbled as they sat side by side on the sand after a particularly long day of playing soccer with some other townies at the beach. "It's official – this summer sucks."

Sammy had been working shifts at the restaurant in a vain attempt to make enough money to pay for classes this year. Ethan had been living in his father's shadow, basically acting as his personal assistant rather than as the assistant choreographer on the National Ballet's summer production. The hours for both were long and left them with little time to make new friends. It was easier just to hang out, an attachment of convenience more than anything.

"Yeah, well, at least the eye candy is delicious," Ethan murmured as he watched a pretty Italian tourist walk by. Her long, dark hair glimmered in the sun. Sammy watched her pass with a lack of enthusiasm. "Not your type?"

"I'm starting to think I don't have a type," Sammy said, brushing him off quickly. He didn't really want to think about having any kind of real feelings for anyone. The breakup with Abigail had been tough, and he was still getting over Christian. "I think it's more about the insides than anything else."

"I know what you mean," Ethan agreed. "I mean, like with Tara, she is pretty much everything I was never looking for. I always liked the mature girls, ones from the city who've seen the world. A little more experienced, if you know what I mean. Tara was a total innocent, so young."

Not really wanting to talk about his friend any longer, Sammy stretched out his legs before sinking to his back. Ethan lay down next to him, throwing his arm over his eyes absently to block out the sun. "Nothing is ending up like I thought it would," Sammy confessed. "I had this list of things that I wanted to achieve while I was at the Academy. I barely marked off any this year."

"A list? What was on it?"

"Disprove the validity of dance belts – those things are terrible. Get ballet on the Olympic roster," Sammy replied. "Fall in love so my heart takes over for my head."

Ethan propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at Sammy. "Anything I can help with?"

Sammy knew in the moment that Ethan wasn't exactly asking to help with any one thing in particular, but he thought that maybe he understood more about Sammy than anyone else right then. He had been around enough dancers to sense these things, and with that question, Ethan was telling Sammy that he was okay with whoever he ended up being. It was the same blind acceptance that Kat had given him, the kind of thing he couldn't really grant himself yet. It was probably stupid, but that surge of emotion made him do the unthinkable. Before he realized it, he had wrapped his hand around Ethan's neck and drew him into a brief kiss. The tall blonde chuckled as he pulled away. He smiled down at Sammy and shook his head before falling back against the sand again.

"So about the Olympics," Ethan proposed, "I think I might have some ideas."

Ethan never really mentioned the kiss to Sammy, and he certainly never talked to anyone about it. It was a secret that Sammy took with him to his grave. Ethan never really thought about it again until he was on the beach for their departed friend's memorial service. He knew that the kiss hadn't really meant anything other than a basic human need in the moment. Sammy had wanted to feel connected, and Ethan, even if he didn't feel the same, had been willing to give it to him. Ethan had cared about his friend, and Sammy had loved him for it. It was just a moment, a breath in time, but it belonged to only them.


	55. Paige & Ari

It would have been easy for both of them to follow in their siblings' footsteps. By the time Ari got to high school, his brother was the stuff of legends. He was the ballet boy who'd died too soon after a senseless car accident on the rainy morning before his big change at international fame. For Paige, she had a lifetime of living in Abigail's footsteps. She had long been used to trying and failing to be as talented, as perfect, as special as her older sister. They could have so easily taken that same that their siblings did when it came to their talents but never did. When it came to matters of the heart, well, that was something entirely different.

Ari had been surprised to receive the invitation to Christian and Tara's wedding. While he had known both of them vaguely through his brother, it had been five years since he had died. It wasn't like any of them had really been in touch with the Lieberman family. He had seen them once since the funeral on the day that the performing arts center was dedicated in Sammy's honor. Since then, the only person he had talked to with any regularity was Kat, and that was only because she was still kicking around Sydney dancing with the Company and teaching at the Academy.

He had gone to see Kat once right after he had gotten the invitation to see if he should go. He was all of eighteen now and didn't really feel any obligation to doing it. However, a part of him felt like it was what Sammy would have wanted, and if he couldn't be there, maybe Ari was the next best thing for his friends. Kat had encouraged him to go and had revealed only briefly that Abigail and Ethan would be back in Australia from St. Petersburg and that she thought Ben would be flying in from Berlin.

Paige had been less surprised to get the invitation from Tara. She knew that her sister was in constant contact with her old roommate and classmate. Abigail had mentioned that Tara wanted her to come since she would be in Sydney, and since she rarely got to see her own sister and brother-in-law, she was treating the wedding as just another family reunion. Besides, it would be good to hang out with Kat again.

She had been hoping to be seated with her sister or Kat at the reception, but after the filed out of the church and into the warm afternoon air, she was less than thrilled to find that they had been assigned toward the front of the hall while she'd have to slum it near the back. Paige quickly scanned the name cards for any sense of familiarity, but only one name stuck out. Ari Lieberman had been Sammy's little brother, and Paige had loved Sammy. She had absolutely adored the boy, the first one to ever hold her sister's heart and make Paige feel butterflies in her own stomach.

"You must be Sammy's brother," she said when he slid into his chair a few minutes earlier. The tall brunette looked at her suspiciously before rolling her eyes. "I'm Paige. I think you know my sister, Abigail."

"You're Abby's little sister?" Ari smiled affectionately. He had always liked his brother's ex-girlfriend. She had been surprisingly good at video games. "Is she here? I haven't seen her for ages. Kat said she married Ethan awhile back."

Paige smiled politely. "Yes, they're up there somewhere. I'm surprised that you're here."

He knew that it could have been rude but it wasn't. "Tara and Christian invited me, and I guess I think Sammy would be happy about it," Ari replied. "I never picked up the dancing bug or became the doctor my father wanted, so I figured this was a good way to pay tribute to my brother."

"So you're not a dancer like Sammy?"

"God no," Ari chuckled. "I play hockey. I'm in my first year at Uni. Starting goalie." He waited a beat before continuing. "Are you a ballerina?"

"Hardly," Paige shook her head. "I'm actually a rhythmic gymnast, which Abigail still absolutely abhors. I swear, between her and Ethan, my family is full of absolute snobs when it comes to my sport. We all supported Abs for ages with her stupid dancing, but they all think it is just silly dancing with ribbons and hoops. You know what I mean?"

Ari shrugged. "My dad sort of hated ballet. Anything else is better by comparison."

They must have sat there talking for two hours, all through dinner and when the cake was served. They hushed their conversation when the happy couple took the floor for an elaborately choreographed but funny first dance. She pointed out her sister and Ethan, and he called Kat over so that they could all three catch up. And when the rest of the attendees made their way out to enjoy a particular Miles Davis song, Ari extended his hand and led Paige out to the middle of the floor.

"You know that my brother used to date your sister, right?"

Paige nodded as she pressed her cheek to his shoulder. "They were in love."

"Do you think they would have ended up together?"

She leaned back for a moment in contemplation before shaking her head. "She was meant for Ethan."

"And what about you, Paige Armstrong? What are you meant to do?"

"I'm meant to enjoy my life and be happy," she smiled softly. "And dance with you. I'm meant to be here dancing with you."

Ari went home that night with Paige's phone number written on a napkin, and she went home with a million dreams of what could be dancing in her head. Two years later, he picked her up with a little ring box in his pocket, and three days after she graduated from Uni, she led him up the stairs at the quaintest little inn with a room key in hers. It would have been so easy for them to become just another ballet statistic, but Ari and Paige weren't meant for that world. They were only meant for each other.

_For goofy._


	56. Grace & Christian & Tara & Ben

Grace and Christian stood on the side of the stage watching the two of them dance.

"You know, you could probably break them up," Grace murmured softly. Tara looked so graceful, so perfect in Ben's arms that it was hard to deny that she belonged anywhere else but there with him. That didn't mean that Grace's heart hurt any less. "She still loves you. She's never stopped."

Christian didn't look over at Grace when he responded. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Tara. "And she's never stopped loving him," he pointed out. "From what I can see, the feeling is quite mutual. He's not in love with you, Grace, he never was. It's always been Tara for him."

They were all twenty-two now, four years out of the Academy and dancing with the National Company. Grace and Christian were both principals, paired together by default after Abigail had left for London and Ollie had moved on to San Francisco. Ben and Tara were still dancing together, featured soloists with the promise of promotion at the end of the season once the senior couple finally retired after two decades. The four of them were best friends and had tried different variations of relationships over the years, including a very brief period where Tara wanted to try kissing girls and Grace had been her willing counterpart.

"And what about her? What does her heart want this time?" Grace asked coldly. She knew that she always came in second (or third) in their sick, sad foursome. Ben and Christian both loved Tara, both wanted to be with her for the long haul, just using Grace to ebb the loneliness when Tara had drifted in in one direction or the other. "When is she going to choose so the three of us can see how this ends up? It's starting to feel less than fair."

"It was never fair, Grace," Christian said sadly, finally turning to look at her. He reached up and cupped her cheek for a moment. "You knew the stakes when you got involved. We all did. As twisted as it is, Ben and I have always been happy to take what we can get. It's not fair, but it's the way it's always been."

"Well, I'm tired of old patterns, Christian," Grace bit back. Tears sparkled in her eyes as she watched Ben arch his back to catch Tara in his arms. He lifted her effortlessly above his head, spinning carefully on his left foot before bringing her back to the ground. "I love him."

Christian reached for her hand in the darkness and squeezed it tightly. Grace was like him in a lot of ways. She had been orphaned by her mother and basically abandoned by her emotionally unavailable father. That made them both a little messed up, and it's why they crashed together so beautifully whenever the more wholesome duo of Ben and Tara took up company.

"I know you do."

"I love you too, you know, but with Ben…" she drifted off, her eyes fixated on the stage. "I'm in love with him."

"And I'm in love with Tara, just like I have been since I was fifteen," he chuckled humorlessly. There was nothing funny about any of this. "And they love each other, are in love with each other, and any feelings they have for either one of us are just a distraction at this point. She's going to choose him, isn't she?"

"She already chose him."

Christian knew that he had a choice to make. He could lament over the situation, he could hope for a fifty-sixth chance, or he could leave right now and put an end to all of it. He tugged lightly on Grace's hand and started toward the exit.

Grace wanted to stay there and wait for Ben, to hug him like she always did after he had a big performance. But the way Christian was looking at her told her that this was the end of everything. That wasn't her place anymore, not that it ever really had been, and she had to choose to accept it. She understood that then, just as she understood that Christian was making a choice of his own. He was choosing her.

"Come on, Grace, let's go home."

_For Em 10._


	57. Kat & Abigail II

_I am not my own, for I have been made you. Please don't let me go, I desperately need you._  
"Meteor Shower" - Owl City

"Have you ever kissed a girl before?"

They're sitting in a circle in the lounge during the last week of Third Year, and everyone is surprised when it's Abigail that asks Kat this question and not vice versa. Tara buries her face in Christian's shoulder as she laughs and Ben tries to hide his obvious eagerness. Grace inspects her nails in that bored way that she does when she wants to pretend that she's disinterested but inside she's fuming that Abigail didn't ask her. And Ollie is unaffected by it all together, not really having much stake in the situation one way or the other.

"Uh, excuse me? I know we've been drinking, but I didn't think you were drunk."

"Just a little buzzed," Abigail laughed happily before tipping back the bottle once again demonstratively. "Now stop avoiding my answer and question, woman!"

"I like buzzed Abigail," Ben chuckled, elbowing the petite brunette jovially in the ribs. She laughed along with him and leaned her head on his shoulder before looking over at the statuesque blonde. "Well, Kat, I believe the lady asked you a question."

Kat covered her face with her hands and had to giggle. "Maybe. Like once. At this party," she admitted. "It wasn't a big thing, just casual."

"No way, you never told me that!" Tara exclaimed.

"It was during that whole Moulin Rouge period, and we weren't exactly on best terms," Kat replied. "I was at this party, there was champagne. You know how it goes."

"What'd you think?" Abigail asked with interest.

"I don't know, it was different," Kat shrugged. "Why are you so interested in this all of a sudden?"

Abigail looked over at Ollie and then at Kat. She had been thinking about Sammy a lot lately, about how she had loved him and he had loved her but how he also loved Ollie. She was increasingly wondering if love wasn't freer than the box she had tried to put it in. "Curiosity, I suppose." She waited a beat and then looked at Kat again. "How's it different?"

"It's softer, women fit together differently," Kat explained. "It was nice."

"Yeah, girls are all curves where guys are straight edges," Ollie added. He was the only other one there with experience of both genders. "Girls are more intimate while guys are about power."

"Not Abigail," Christian teased her. It had been once, on a dare, but they had both been dominating in their very brief exchange. "She wants to come out on top."

Abigail rolled her eyes in his general direction before looking at Kat. "I want to try it."

"With me?" she laughed nervously. "Why not T? Or Grace? You could be the one to pop that cherry."

"Oh, no, I've kissed a girl before," Grace pointed out. That was certainly a different turn of events. "I grew up at boarding school, remember? We all have to learn to kiss somewhere."

"And as Training Bra's boyfriend, I'm going to have to protect her virtue from the likes of you, Armstrong," Christian protested. "She can't handle you."

Cocking her head to the side, she offered up a nod in admittance that much was true. "Guess it's just you and me, Karamakov? What do you say? It's juts research." Kat finally gives in and it lasts only a second. Afterward, Abigail just looks at her in confusion. "You taste differently than Ethan."

"You mean she doesn't smell like Christmas?" Christian asked mockingly. Tara frowned at him.

It's then that Kat gets while Abigail wanted to kiss her in the first place. Sure, she might have had some interest somewhere in there to see what it was like, but the blonde mostly suspected that her roommate missed Ethan. Feeling only a tiny bit used and mostly sorry for her friend, Kat wrapped her arm around Abigail and kissed the top of her head affectionately. "He'll be back next week for graduation," Kat whispered. "We'll figure something out then."

_For Dollarzz._


	58. Christian & Abigail & Ollie

_It doesn't matter what the conversation, just as long as he calls.  
"Invisible Man" – 98 Degrees_

Abigail spent exactly two months following Third Year dating Ollie and then they broke up. He had never really been into girls but Abigail felt different. She _was_ different. His heart just wasn't. He loved her more than he had perhaps ever loved anyone, even Sammy, but that just wasn't enough to change who he was deep inside where it counted. Loving her and being gay were mutually exclusive, he told her, and she promised that they could stay partners and best friends.

His music career had really taken off by then. It was just a small club tour around Australia, but she was perfectly content to be one of his two backup dancers. Kat even came in occasionally when the stage as big enough to warrant three dancers. They came up with elaborate routines that made it seem as though there were more than just three or four people up there. They were great partners, and they really came to rely on each other. They were more than just friends and confidants, they were family. If some part of her didn't want a family, Abigail might have even proposed a sexless marriage just so she didn't have to lose him. And then Brisbane happened.

Christian flew in to meet up with Kat, Abigail and Ollie when they were performing at this little hip hop club downtown. Everyone was excited to see him, especially since he had been busy as a demi soloist with the Company. When Kat came down with the flu the day they were supposed to go on, Christian filled in for her. He ended up dancing with them for the entire week he was on holiday, and when he left, Abigail's phone number had replaced Tara's as the first one on his speed dial. Abigail didn't tell Ollie that he kissed her until three days later.

From then on, every spare minute she had was spent talking, texting and video chatting with Christian. They were in constant contact, so much to the point that her message chimes often interrupted rehearsals and even recording sessions. Ollie tried to be patient, to not get jealous, but he felt like he was losing a part of him. Abigail was still there as much as she had ever been, but it was clear that her attention was divided. She started blowing off late night dinners and after parties to hole up in her motel room so she could get a conversation with Christian in. They took what they could whenever they could and it was only a matter of time until it all came to a head.

"You told me that you would be here early to help me lay down the background vocals," Ollie told her softly one afternoon when she showed up three hours late.

He had rented some studio time during a weeklong excursion to Perth. Abigail had promised to help him fill in the gaps on a couple of songs he was doing for an EP. There were actual record producers interested in him – in them – and she should have been more excited. Instead, she had forgotten all about Ollie so that she could talk to Christian about his turn as the Pied Piper in some weird nursery rhyme reimagining.

"I'm sorry, I forgot. I will pay you back for the time wasted and come in early tomorrow to record," she promised. She said this while never looking up from her phone. "I'm sure they won't mind."

"Can you pay attention to me for once and not your phone?"

"What is your problem?" she demanded in return. "You sound like a jealous boyfriend."

"And what if I am?" he shot back. "I think I have the right to be angry at this point. I've earned it."

Abigail had to do everything she could to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "The problem with that logic, Ol, is that you're not my boyfriend. You decided that you still wanted to have boyfriends of your own, remember?" she reminded him. She sounded like the cruel version of herself, First Year Abs. "That means you don't get to dictate who I spend my time with. I know I let you down, I apologize and want to make that up to you. If that's not enough, I guess we're at an impasse."

"He's stealing you from me!"

It's then that she gets what this is really about. "Oh, Ollie," she said softly before going over to wrap her arms around him. "You know that you're still my best friend, don't you? If I was with him and not you, I'd spend all my time texting and calling you. You're my most important person; nothing, not even Christian, is going to change that."

Ollie couldn't help but smile sheepishly at him. "I just don't want to lose another best friend."

"You're not going to lose me. I need you in my life, Oliver," she told him primly. "Do you forgive me?"

He nodded before hugging her sideways and pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek. "I'm sorry too."

"All is forgiven," she promised. "Now let's get to work, partner. I just had a fabulous idea for a sordid love triangle."

_For just-not._


	59. Tara & Christian & Abigail

_There's a window to my heart. If I find my feet down on Lonely Street, I'll be stood there waiting for you.  
"Oh Boy" – Duffy_

In another life, Abigail is pretty sure that the three of them could have been another ill-fated love triangle. Instead, she ended up becoming best friends with Tara and Christian. After Kat left for rehab in Spain for her eating disorder, after Grace had her breakdown and was sent back to London in shame, after Ben got the part in the Company and started the world tour, after Ollie got signed to the label and flew off to LA, it was just the three of them left in Sydney. There were old ghosts and old strings that had sewn them together over time, but despite those ties and all those departures, they were just friends. There was no romance, no fighting, no jealousy.

It's not to say they weren't tested. There was the time Tara reinjured her back and went back to the farm to recuperate. Depression had set in when she had missed her first target return date and then another. She quit taking what few classes she could manage, stopping returning messages to administrators at the Company. The final straw had come when Christian and Abigail compared notes and realized they hadn't heard from her for two weeks. A week off sent them back to the countryside, and twelve hours later, they had packed her into the backseat of a borrowed car to come back to Sydney. They rearranged their entire lives around her PT appointments and rehab classes. When she made her return debut the next month, Christian and Abigail filled her dressing room with potted shamrock plants. She found fourteen four-leaf clovers that day.

There was also the time that Abigail had her first slip up in more than four years. She had just been fitted for her Cinderella tutu the week before, but when it came back as an inch too tight, Abigail had been sent spiraling backward. It was such a tiny thing that caused a huge trigger, and she was an expert at hiding it. She wasn't as careless as Kat had been about hiding it. She knew how to take bites and then spit them back into her napkin all without her dinner companions ever noticing. She ate bags of these apple chips that had like 50 calories and no fat. It wasn't enough to sustain her but it was enough to appear as though she was eating regularly. She made her next fitting, but it would end up not mattering. When she fainted during rehearsal the next afternoon, the Company's dietician only needed five minutes to assess her as an official relapse case. It was back to rehab for her. Tara wrote her long emails after every evening performance while she was starring as Abigail's replacement (a role that Abigail insisted she take because she couldn't bear anyone else dancing the part), and Christian came to visit every morning with a cup of her favorite coffee and a smile that made the place feel like home.

And Christian suffered his own setback when his father was killed in a motorcycle accident three days before Christmas. He had been down the coast to visit a few clients when a truck driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel. The police promised that it had been instantaneous and he hadn't felt any pain. It reminded them all so much, too much, of Sammy. Abigail and Tara could never voice that to Christian, but he talked about it all the time. Tara held his hand in the back of the cab when they went to claim his body and Abigail wrapped herself around him like a spoon the first night while he pretended to sleep. They anchored him down during the funeral, flanking him through the procession and the receiving line. They made all the necessary calls and the arrangements and did everything they could to ensure he didn't disappear inside himself. He never stopped letting them help or letting them in. He needed them too much at that point. Christian wasn't himself without Abigail and Tara there to define him.

It's that friendship, that basic need for each other, that keeps them ever veering toward romance. Sure, there were still twinges of something familiar between Christian and Tara from time to time. Perhaps, Abigail and Christian had even kissed a time or two without Tara ever knowing. However, the friendship always outweighed anything else, and they remained loyal to their platonic threesome. Those old ties had bound them together at one time, but now, they actively chose to be best friends. There was only loyalty, only support, only love.


	60. Sammy & Abigail & Christian II

_I'm back to where I was before, tumbling backwards at your love._  
"Your Love" - Keane

Christian had made it his personal mission to get Sammy and Abigail back together. They were both miserable without each other, making his partner even harder to work with than usual. She was uptight on a good day, and their chemistry often depended on her mood. This was Third Year, the year that really mattered and determined whether or not they made into the Company. Despite how he portrayed himself to others, Christian really wanted to dance with the Australian Ballet, and Abigail was the key to seeing his mother's final wish come true.

They were partners in every sense of the word when it came to dance. While she had done well enough with Sammy, there was something extraordinary about Christian and Abigail together on stage. It was like the difference between Christian dancing with Tara and Ben dancing with her. They just clicked. They were both dark and a little messed up and mostly self-absorbed. That's why it was good they had people like Sammy to balance them out. The guy was Christian's best friend and totally perfect for Abigail. He still didn't understand why they hadn't acted on their kiss right before the Prixe last year, but it had never really been his style to meddle. He was a little more elusive than that.

"You know, Abigail is kind of hot when she's all pissed off," Christian whispered one day during rehearsal. Abigail had just finished a full three-minute tirade Tara when she had accidentally bumped into her former roommate during a series of leaps. It wasn't pretty. "Maybe I should ask her out."

"Dude," Sammy warned him, glaring at his friend knowingly. "Do not go there."

Christian shrugged at his friend in faux innocence. "What? She's single, I'm single, we're totally compatible. We dance together well, and we spend a lot of time together rehearsing. I think it'd be a lot of fun hanging out with her. I bet she's a really good kisser. It'd be a good way to work of our mutual frustrations with each other if nothing else."

Sammy shot his friend an angry look before filing into the middle of the studio floor for their turn at the jumping pass. Christian counted the subtle (okay, maybe not so subtle) planting of the seed as a victory.

The next evening when they were rehearsing a modern piece for their upcoming exams, Christian told Abigail that he was thinking about setting up Sammy with a girl. "I mean, can't you see him with someone like Tara?" he asked while lifting Abigail up into an arabesque hold. "They are so similar. I bet they'd be really great together."

"You want to set up your ex-girlfriend with your best friend?"

"I just want both of them to be happy, and if they're happy together, I can be supportive," he declared aloud. Of course, that was the last thing he wanted, but that was mostly because he knew the two of them would never work. They were far too platonic, too much like siblings, for there to ever be any real chemistry between them. "Besides, I've seen how affectionate they are toward each other. He's always hugging her and whispering in her ear. It's clear that he has a little crush on her or something. It's almost cute, don't you think?"

"Not really," Abigail mumbled, meeting his eyes in the mirror. He was pleased to see her looking upset and uncomfortable. A girl like Abigail would only act if she thought her territory was being encroached upon by some competition. It was exactly how she danced. "Sammy needs someone who challenges him to be better, to be more. Tara accepts the status quo."

Christian knew from his own experience that was hardly true. "Well, I still think it's a good idea."

He made sure to show up to class the next day with his arm around Abigail. He was whispering in her ear, stealing looks at Sammy with the most mischevious smile on his face. He knew that his friend was secretly boiling with anger, but he wasn't about to let it show. Meanwhile, he was telling Abigail all these details he had about his fake plan to hook Tara up with Sammy. The girl had too much pride to let her true feelings show, so she pasted a happy smile on her face and told him good luck. It was just enough to send Sammy off into a tailspin.

"You really shouldn't mess with her if you're not into her."

"You almost sound jealous there, Sammy," Christian pointed out as the two began to stretch at the barre. "I thought you two had moved on."

"She did, we have," he said automatically. Sammy stopped and raked his fingers through his hair. "Look, man, Abigail is special. She's been through some stuff. I know how you can get. I'm just saying if you don't want to be with her, don't pretend that you do. She deserves better than that."

Christian looked across the room to where Abigail was watching them. "You mean, she deserves someone like you?"

Sammy let it drop before turning to Grace to start warming up their pas de deux. Christian came over to stand next to Abigail while she finished her stretching. "This is stupid," he announced. "I thought I could hatch some grand scheme to get you two back together. Instead, you're trying to look out for his best interest and he's telling me that you're special. It's not working like I planned."

"He thinks I'm still special?" she mused with a happy little smile. Christian knew he had her in that moment. It had been the only thing she had heard. "When did he say that?"

"Just now when he was protecting your virtue."

Abigail didn't say anything else when Zach came into the room and started taking them through their morning class. However, Christian noticed that she danced lighter, happier, better. By the time they broke for lunch, he would have sworn that her feet were two feet off the ground. She dawdled behind, clearly waiting to catch up with Sammy, and Christian headed out to give them some privacy.

"Christian said you think I'm special."

"Of course I do, Abs," he smiled. "Look, if you like Christian, I think that's great. I just want you to be happy. If he doesn't treat you right, though, you tell me."

Abigail shook her head. "I'm not into Christian and I'm fairly certain he's not into me," she giggled. "I think he's just scheming to get us back together. He has it in that thick head of his that we belong together. He tried to tell me he wanted to hook you up with Tara."

"With T? I'd never…"

"I know that," she assured him. "So what do you think?"

"You mean, do we belong together?"

"Something like that."

"I think that I like you and I want to find out," he admitted. She blushed prettily but smiled despite the red creeping up her neck. "What do you think?"

"I think I agree," she murmured just before his lips met hers.

Christian found a tub of surfboard wax and a packet of guitar picks later on his bed. It was their way of saying thanks.


End file.
